


The Seven Day Lockdown

by keire_ke, LadyC



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M, X-Men Big Bang 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-26
Updated: 2014-06-20
Packaged: 2018-01-17 03:11:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1371733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keire_ke/pseuds/keire_ke, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyC/pseuds/LadyC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a new CIA program is able to de-power both Charles and Erik’s groups and trap them together in the school, both men are forced to cope with unresolved tensions as they struggle to make a decision that will affect every mutant in the country.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue - The interim between a boat and a beach

**Author's Note:**

> Written for X-Men Big Bang Round 3, with gorgeous art by keire_ke.
> 
> Art masterpost: http://keire-ke.tumblr.com/post/89408861804/my-contribution-for-the-x-men-big-bang-round
> 
> Also, many thanks to KP for the beta!

 

“We want the same thing.”

“I’m sorry, my friend, but we do not.”

It takes Erik a moment to truly comprehend the words. All of their plans, gone in an instant. Another act that could never be undone, another bullet he couldn’t stop.

At least this time he knows the only way to deal with pain like this. He rises without another word and lets rage course through him. How dare they blame him – did he not just rescue them all from certain death at the hands of the very people they were trying to protect? To join, even? Here Charles was, lying with a bullet in his back, and he was still naïve enough to believe peace was possible? Maybe Charles could afford to be that delusional if he never had and never would want for money or food or a home, but Erik knows all too well how easily all of that could be taken from you if you let your guard down, even for an instant. He knows it is essential to fight.

Shaw’s followers know it, too, and as such it’s unexpected when they join him. He is more surprised when Raven does, but he can’t allow himself to think through the consequences of that now. Erik refuses to look back. He’s not sure he can trust himself not to change his mind.

A few hours later, Erik finds Raven and Azazel missing from the bunker they’re temporarily commandeered to be their base of operations. When Azazel returns, he explains that Raven couldn’t bear the thought of Charles hurt and abandoned on that beach, so she forced him to take her back there and get them all to a hospital. She told him to tell Erik that she was sorry, but she couldn’t leave him, after all. Azazel is humiliated to have to admit that Raven overpowered him, but Erik feels something strangely like pride.

Erik can’t stop himself from asking how Charles is, though he tries to sound as indifferent as possible while doing so. Azazel reports that Charles is in bad shape and will likely never walk again.

If any of the others are disturbed when the door to the bunker appears to tear itself in half, they don’t let it show.

 

* * *

A year passes. Charles struggles to adjust to the chair. It’s not physically difficult; it’s just that he forgets, sometimes. It’s worst in the mornings, when he wakes from a mercifully dreamless sleep and moves to get out of bed. He has a moment of panic when he can’t move his legs and then everything comes rushing back to him all at once. As much as he fights it, a tide of hurt and anger rises anew each time.

He thinks about taking Moira’s memories and sending her away for her own good, but she proves invaluable in running the day to day operations of the school and he values her judgment. Between her, Hank, and Raven, the school not only survives but flourishes.

Charles knows that his ever-expanding group of students is relying on him to provide leadership, strength, and hope. He does the best he can, but many days it’s more than he can give. Most of them think he is just mourning the loss of his legs and that’s fine with Charles. It’s not like being honest abou tit would change anything.

Raven tells him to stay optimistic, that medical advances are happening at such an exponential rate that there’s a decent chance he’ll be able to walk again. He smiles and nods as if this would solve everything and she returns his smile like she believes him. Still, she makes an excuse to change the channel any time a newscaster begins a piece about the mysterious helmeted mutant who is gaining followers and power at an alarming rate.

 

* * *

 

Another year goes by. Erik goes only by Magneto now. With Emma’s help, he has amassed a following of similar-minded mutants. They call themselves the Brotherhood and they are true believers who give him the utmost respect. He rarely speaks with any of them, preferring to give orders through Emma and keep to himself unless he needs to give one of his rallying speeches before a major operation. They are building a cache of money and weapons faster than he had ever thought possible and he wants to be ready to use it at a moment’s notice.

Erik never takes the helmet off, even when he sleeps. He’s learned his lesson about letting anyone in.

There are some nights still when he is overcome by a sudden wave of guilt that sends his body into racking sobs. But those are growing less frequent as time marches on. It’s easier to be angry.

 

* * *

 

The following year, Moira is taking Charles on a walk through the garden when she stops and leans down to kiss him. He doesn’t know if he’s capable of feeling much more than pain, but her mind provides a pleasant warmth and he thinks this is probably the closest to happiness he is capable of feeling, so he kisses her back.

She expects nothing from him and he is grateful.

Sometimes he thinks back to the first night they met, when he was a drunk graduate flirting with a pretty girl he was fairly certain he could get into bed. He wishes for both their sakes that he could get that man back, but he feels like a stranger. Too much happened in that period of time that he tries to shove away into some dark, inaccessible corner of his mind, the interim between a boat and a beach.

 

* * *

Erik keeps busy with recruiting, training, planning, and practicing. He works until he is so exhausted that he less goes to sleep than passes out.

As such, he doesn’t feel it when his helmet slips just a bit one night. It’s not enough for any sort of real telepathic connection, even Charles couldn’t reach him at this distance. But he finds himself dreaming of a room with a fireplace and a chess board. A figure with bright blue eyes rises from the seat across from him and walks over. He leans in close to Erik, planting a series of soft kisses up his neck and along his jawline until he reaches his lips. Erik is pressed down against the couch and a voice whispers that it’s not too late, just come home, please come home.

He moans and shifts in his sleep, allowing the helmet to slide back into place. The dream disintegrates and he wakes up frustrated and achingly alone. He pulls on jeans and walks the short distance to Emma’s room.

She tells him to come in and he finds her sitting wide awake on a chaise. “So you can’t sleep either. That’s comforting.” She rises and says it in the same tone she always uses with him, a mix of disgust and pure practicality.

Erik strides towards her and pulls her roughly against him. She looks at him for a moment, considering, then slides off her dress.

He goes to leave immediately after, searching the darkened room for his discarded clothes. “You know,” she says. “I still haven’t forgiven you. Probably never will.”

Erik turns back to her and smirks. “Likewise.”

He leaves and closes the door behind him with a sense of finality.

He returns the next night.

 

* * *

 

Charles is woken from a strange dream by Moira shaking him gently. “Charles? Hey. It’s okay. We _are_ home.”

“Of course, of course. I apologize.” He gets out of bed and walks to his bathroom to splash his face with water and give himself a moment for his breathing to return to normal.

When he lies back down, Moira leans over him and begins to stroke his hair. She starts kissing him and he tries to lose himself in it, but when she begins to move lower, his whole body tenses involuntarily. Moira looks up at him and forces a smile, but Charles can feel the hurt radiating off her.

“Hey,” he says as gently as possible. “I thought we were taking things slow.”

“Yes, but…”

“We’ve talked about this, Moira. I’m still readjusting.”

She rolls onto her back, looking defeated. “It’s been nearly a month, Charles.”

“Feels shorter.”

He still hasn’t fully processed everything. When Hank told him about a colleague’s breakthrough on spinal rehabilitation surgery six months ago, Charles’s first inclination had been to say he wasn’t interested. He wasn’t sure if it was depression or acceptance, but he’d gotten used to his condition and felt he had more important things to worry about. But Raven and Moira had pushed him to give it a try and now here he was, improbably whole again. He felt the relief in all of their minds that they could finally put the past behind them and move on. And yet, he was unable to shake the feeling that there was a part of himself he might never regain, a certain numbness of feeling he was destined to endure for the rest of his days.

The phone rings and he answers. He listens to the voice on the other end for a minute, then replies without hesitation, “I’ll be there.” He feels Moira’s disappointment and frustration before he can even turn around. “I’m sorry, love. I have to go.”

“What is it?”

“Apparently our friends at the CIA have developed a new mutant-locating technology that is nearly as powerful as Cerebro and could be used by anyone. The prototype is being moved tonight and they are concerned that they have a leak, so they have requested backup protection.”

“Do they not have an entire army that can do that?”

“An army is not so useful against a man who can turn their guns against them.”

“Oh.” Moira’s face falls. “Charles, you don’t have to. Hank and Raven are more than capable…”

“No. This one I have to lead myself.”

As he leaves the room, he pretends not to hear Moira as she asks, a bit bitterly, “What happened to readjusting?”

 

* * *

 

Erik storms into Emma’s room and she rolls her eyes. “Not in the mood, Magneto.”

“Get up. I’ve received news we need to act on tonight. Round up the best team we have.”

 On the way, he explains to Emma and her select group of five that a source tipped him off to a device that would finally allow them to match, if not outpace, the Xavier Institute in recruitment. It’s in the process of being transported to Langley and is currently being held in a temporary storage facility near Trenton.

As they approach the warehouse that is temporarily serving as a CIA facility through a darkened patch of trees, team members break off and spread out with military precision. The external guards are taken out within minutes. The team splits up once inside, combing the building for the prototype.

Erik moves carefully through a hall upstairs. He feels a box-like shape made of heavy metals just past the next corner. He is about to round it when he hears a small movement just on the other side. No gun – what type of guard is this? He pulls a large metal beam off the wall and rushes forward, preparing to slam it into whomever is waiting on the other side.

And then he sees Charles.

Erik freezes, the beam hovering in the air between them.

Charles takes a step closer. “Hello, Erik. Or do you just go by Magneto now? I’m afraid I can’t let you take that prototype.”

Erik seems to be having some trouble breathing. “But… How are you walking?”

“The wonders of modern medicine,” Charles drawls in a voice far colder and more cynical than Erik remembers. “A human developed the cure, interestingly enough. Thought that might surprise you.”

Erik pushes through the shock and the other, more frightening emotions underneath and forces himself to focus on the mission. “Congratulations. Please move.”

“No.”

“I’m going to need to get by you. I would prefer to do so in a way that doesn’t risk putting you back in that wheelchair, but don’t doubt I will if I have to.”

“Oh, I have no doubt, old friend,” Charles replies bitterly.

Erik is steeling himself to hit him when Riptide comes flying around the corner at Charles, two knives outstretched. Before he has a second to make a conscious decision, Erik throws the metal beam into Riptide, pinning him to the wall. Riptide falls and Erik can only hope the man is just unconscious.

Charles stares at Erik in open-mouthed shock. Erik stares back, shaken.

Before either can say a word, the lights begin to flicker violently and both men collapse. 

 


	2. Day 1 - What if it was that easy to just come home?

The first thing Charles became aware of was the pain. It had started as a dull throbbing behind his eyeballs and, within a few minutes, had transformed into a searing agony that radiated out to the back of his head and down his neck.

The next thing he noticed was the silence. There were low sounds of breathing nearby, so he wasn’t alone, wherever he was, but there was nothing else. He tried to focus through the pain and reach out to the minds close by, but heard nothing. He never heard nothing.

Stifling a groan, he forced his eyes open and tried to get his bearings. That couch – he definitely recognized that couch. He appeared to be on the floor of the mansion’s great room, which was usually reserved for when everyone in the house had to gather for a meeting. What was he doing on the floor in there? Was he drunk? But usually he heard people’s thoughts louder when he drank…

He rolled over, inch by agonizing inch, until he found himself face to face with the last person he would have expected to see here.

 _Erik?_ Perhaps he was dreaming. That made as much sense as anything. Why else would a man who was so adamant about making him his enemy be sprawled out next to him on the floor, eyes closed, handsome features unobscured by a helmet?

Charles startled as Erik jolted up and raised his hand in one motion, apparently trying to call something to him. He had a moment to look shocked when nothing happened before that same pain seemed to hit him and he cursed darkly in a language Charles didn’t understand.

“Whoever you are, would you kindly shut the fuck up?”

“Raven?” Hearing her voice gave Charles the strength to sit up and glance around. He almost fell back down when he did. The entire floor of the room was littered with mutants in various stages of awakening. He recognized not only his own students, but also at least twenty Brotherhood members.

He startled when he located Raven and saw that she was still blue. He hoped against hope that she was immune to whatever was affecting the rest of them, but the rising panic in her yellow eyes suggested otherwise.

“Charles, I can’t change. I’m trying, but I can’t…” She looked down at her blue hands with a horror that Charles hadn’t seen on her face in a long time and tried unsuccessfully to keep panic out of her voice. “What’s going on?”

Erik grabbed Charles’s arm and hissed, “What the hell did you do to us?”

“What did _I_ do?” Charles snapped as he shook him off. Anger was good. It was clearing his head. “Last I seem to recall, _you_ and your band of criminals was attempting to…”

“Good morning, all!” A short man in a jaunty blue suit strode in, a bounce in his step and a smile on his face. “Rise and shine!”

Sixty faces stared at him in shock.

“Okay now, don’t worry if you’re finding yourselves unable to move anything - the effects are only temporary. I would recommend staying on the floor for the time being, however, as none of you have weapons or your… powers, let’s say, for lack of a better word. Also, this entire building is surrounded by men with guns trained on each and every one of you. Got it? Great. I’m sure you are all quite confused at the moment, so please shut up and listen closely.”

He gave the group a moment to test for themselves that not one of them could manifest their powers. Once he felt the confusion starting to give way to anger, he shined that bright smile again and continued. “I am Carlton Pace. I was, until recently, the head of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as ARPA. In light of a recent technological breakthrough of mine, however, I have been appointed to the newly minted position of Head of Mutant Affairs for the United States intelligence community. Hold your applause, please.

“What was this breakthrough, you might ask? Well, you have all had the privilege of experiencing this revolutionary technology firsthand. It is device that emits an electromagnetic pulse that has a frequency exactly opposite that of the brain wave patterns that allow you to access your mutations. Some of you look upset, to say the least. Don’t be! All this is only temporary. Your powers will begin coming back little by little after about a week, and you’ll be back to your ‘normal’ selves well within two weeks.

“So, why all the theatrics? Am I being dramatic to prove a point about how the government is two steps ahead of you and has the ability to render you all defenseless in less than ten seconds? Absolutely. But I’m also here to offer you all a unique opportunity.

“Option one: you join the CIA as part of our new mutant division. You would be called on to serve your country on occasion, but it would be purely peacekeeping efforts and the vast remainder of the time you would be completely left alone. You would be granted full rights, protections, and immunities. Good deal, right?

“Option two: don’t join and be considered a potential threat to national security. You would be placed on a watch list and, for any infraction, law enforcement would have full permission to use this device and/or deadly force.

“Now, gotta say, to me the choice seems obvious. But the higher-ups seem to feel that this will require careful deliberation from some of you. As a result, you will all be staying inside this mansion for the next seven days. Attempts to attack or escape shall be met with instant death. Any questions?”

Most people in the room had managed to sit up by that point, but between the weakness and the shock, none spoke up.

“Wonderful. I will return to speak with each of you on an individual basis tomorrow.”

Just as Pace turned to leave, Erik gritted, “Where is my helmet?”

“Excuse me? Oh, that hideous thing. It’s around here somewhere. You should be able to locate it just about,” he glanced at his watch, “155 hours.” He moved swiftly behind Charles and clapped him on the shoulder. “That is, if this guy doesn’t get his powers back first and make you forget why you ever wanted it in the first place.”

Pace took a moment to let that sink in, then donned his coat. “It’s getting late – I’ll leave you to figure work out sleeping arrangements. Have a pleasant evening.” Pace exited and closed the door behind him.

Charles took a deep breath to calm himself and rose to speak before panic could overtake the crowd. He noted the familiar spark of anger in Erik’s eyes.

“Alright, everyone. Let’s all try to remain calm.”

“Remain calm?” Erik was up next to him in a shot. “They have us in a fucking internment camp! What the hell is wrong with you, Professor? There’s idealism and then there’s delusion and you have gone way over the line.”

Charles glared and felt his hand balling into a fist. He had nearly forgotten how infuriating this man could be. “I’m sorry, Magneto, what do you propose? Want to attack the armed guards with nothing but our bare hands?”

“Perhaps we should.”

There were a few encouraging noises from the crowd, and not just from the Brotherhood. Charles felt the headache growing stronger. He looked meaningfully at Erik and gestured towards the anteroom. “Can we…?”

“No.” Erik raised his voice even louder. “I have nothing to hide. Anything you have to say to me you can say in front of all of them.”

“Really?” He took a step closer and a dangerous tone crept into his voice. “Anything?”

They eyed each other warily until Moira rose and pulled Charles back. “Listen, guys. Everyone is exhausted and in no place to think clearly right now. Let’s all get some rest and try to have the calmest night we can. We will have plenty of time to discuss this in the morning.”

Charles nodded appreciatively and Erik grunted something that sounded like assent, so she continued. “Now, there is quite a large number of us. How many rooms do we have here, Charles?”

Alex raised his hand with a grin. “I graciously volunteer to be one of the ones to double up. What do you say, Amara?” He winked at the pretty girl who could formerly create lava and the group snickered.   


Charles appreciated the attempt to lighten the mood, but had trouble cracking a smile. “Everyone will need to share a room. Please be generous in accommodating our temporary guests. Moira, would you be a dear and help our students sort themselves on the third floor?”

“Of course.” She kissed him on the cheek and set about pairing off students.

Charles turned to meet the gaze of a rather irritable-looking Erik and said, with as much formal politeness as he could muster, “You and yours are welcome to the rooms on the second level.”

“Fine. Let’s move.” Erik put an arm around Emma’s waist and led the Brotherhood out of the room. Charles resolutely looked away, determined to ignore the stab of something that was definitely not jealously that arose at the sight.

Finally, only Raven remained. “What about me?”

He smiled affectionately. “You, my dear, may keep your own room.” He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “If I’m not mistaken, it’s shared anyway. Good man, that Hank.”

She went a bit red and glanced down, but returned his smile.

After a moment, Charles grew serious. “Listen, Raven. Even without powers, Erik is a force to be reckoned with. We need to keep an eye on him.”

 “I think you’re doing a pretty good job of that on your own.”

Charles did his best to look completely taken aback. “What in God’s name is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” Raven responded with a roll of her eyes. “Let’s get some sleep.”

 

* * *

 

After personally ensuring that Riptide was made comfortable in his own room and that he had no memory of how he had come to have five broken ribs and a hairline fracture on his skull, Erik entered the room he had seen Emma decide on.

She looked up at him from where she was lounging across the bed with a book and raised an eyebrow. “Are we plotting?”

“No.”

“Are we fucking?”

“No.”

“Then get out, I want the room to myself.”

“What?”

“Look, you can act possessive all you want in front of other people for God knows what reason…”

“I have no idea what…”

“But right now, I am in a very nasty mood and I want my space.” She closed the door in his face and turned the lock.

It was a testament to how affected he was by their circumstances that instead of the expected rage, Erik just felt a vague weariness. He turned and headed in what he seemed to recall was the direction to the kitchen. Enjoying a tumbler of Charles’s top shelf scotch seemed the least he could do for himself.

He entered the room and immediately saw that he was not the only one with that idea. Charles sat at the kitchen table, pouring himself what seemed to be his third or fourth glass of the night. Erik was wondering if there was still time for him to back out unnoticed, but Charles spoke without looking up. “Ah, if it isn’t the great Magneto.”

He took an uncomfortable step forward. “Good evening.”

“Still remember your way around after… how long has it been? Four years? Five? You lose track.” Charles was noticeably slurring his words.

“I suppose so. I can go, if you’d prefer privacy.”

“No, no. Grab a glass, take a seat.” He gestured vaguely in the direction of a cabinet of glassware.

Erik took a tumbler and sat down in the chair across from Charles, angling his body so that they weren’t fully facing each other. He poured himself some of the scotch and sipped slowly, trying to adjust to being back in this place, in his presence.

“Well.” Charles put his glass down on the table harder than necessary. “Say something, won’t you? I can’t relax with all this silence.”

“I’d think it would be a nice reprieve.”

“Of course you would. For me… Everything is so blasted quiet. No thoughts or dreams or emotions flickering by. I can’t feel my students’ presence and know they’re safe. It’s… disorienting, to say the least.”

Erik felt a welcome surge of anger rising up through the exhaustion. “These humans don’t realize what they have done to us – that it’s less like turning off a switch than hacking off a limb.” He could barely contain the disgust in his voice. “I swear, the instant I regain my powers…”

Charles interrupted him with a raise of his hand. “I don’t want to hear it. I could argue, but I’m tired, and there’s plenty of time to discuss these things later. I came down here to stop thinking. I hear my own thoughts echoing too loudly in my head.”

Erik downed the rest of his drink. He could understand not wanting to think about anything at the moment. After all, it wasn’t even twenty-four hours ago that he had nearly killed one of his own to protect this man and he was not anywhere near ready to plumb those depths.

“You wouldn’t happen to still have that chess board, would you?”

A ghost of a smile flickered across Charles’s face so quickly that Erik wasn’t entirely sure he hadn’t imagined it, but the younger man rose and wordlessly led the way into his study. He worked to get a fire started as Erik set up the pieces.

They played in silence. There was too much that could, and probably should, be discussed, but Erik allowed himself to ignore that for the time being as they found themselves getting into a familiar rhythm. He subtly watched Charles while he concentrated on the board, noticed the way he still ran a finger along his lower lip as he considered his next move, how his blue eyes seemed to catch the firelight.

Charles glanced up at him, looking confused, and Erik dropped his gaze quickly to focus on the board.

When he looked up a few minutes later, Charles had fallen asleep, his head lolling against the side of the chair.

Erik rose and placed a blanket over him. He gently tucked it around his shoulders, his fingers lingering on the other man’s cheek. Charles shifted without waking and rested his head against Erik’s hand, sighing contentedly. Erik’s dream came back to him unbidden. What if it was that easy to just come home?  

It couldn’t be.

It wasn’t.

He pulled his hand back and quickly left the room.

 


	3. Day 2 – Am I your enemy, Charles?

 

“What are you doing down here?”

Charles opened his eyes groggily. His head felt fuzzy and it took him a moment to process that he was in the armchair in his study with Moira standing over him. He reached out with his mind to see if he’d missed anything important. The resounding answer of nothingness was enough to wake him up fully and he winced as yesterday’s memories came flooding back. He cast his eyes around the room for Erik, but there was no trace of him save the blanket on Charles’s lap that he was fairly confident he had not put there.

“Charles? Are you ok?”

“Yes, yes. Thank you, dear. Had a spot of trouble sleeping and came down here to relax. It seems to have worked.”

Moira looked relieved to hear it and Charles smiled affectionately at her. “Breakfast? Or have our students and guests already emptied the cupboards?”

“Oh, no one’s up yet. It’s only 6AM. Sorry to wake you so early, I just got nervous when I woke up and couldn’t find you.” She paused and the smile left her face, leaving a mixture of concern and determination. “There’s something we should talk about.”

"There are quite a few things we should probably talk about, but we can save them for after tea, yes?"

"Not this." She rose and checked down the hall, then closed the door to the study before taking the seat across from Charles. "Were you playing chess by yourself?" she asked, faintly amused.

Charles scoffed. "Of course not. I was... Ah, it's not important."

Moira frowned at this and began resetting the pieces. She seemed to be carefully considering the phrasing of what she was going to say next. "Charles, I've been thinking about our strategic situation here. Regardless of what everyone decides, all of your powers will be back in a week. And there will still be hundreds of armed guards surrounding the mansion. You can see the coming disaster, right?"

"Yes. Quite frankly, I’m surprised the director didn’t see it. But I can handle Er... Magneto at some point today and see if we can come to an agreement."

"A talk with him? Really?”

“Well, I don’t see what else…”

“Look, Charles. I know you and he… bonded or whatever when he was here and I’m sure everyone being together again is bringing back some positive memories. But you can’t let yourself forget all the terrible things he has done in the name of 'mutant rights.’ Not to mention the fact that he put you in a wheelchair for three years of your life!"

"I’m aware." Charles knew he sounded more irritated at her than she deserved. Moira was right, of course. The reality of the past few years had tempered his youthful optimism, but he still found himself hoping that there could be an opportunity here to set things right. And perhaps that hope was weakness.

"Magneto is dangerous. We all know what he’s capable of. And we all know what will happen if he is able to unleash his powers on the people who have been holding him captive for a week.”

“So, what can we do? Are you thinking I should take control of him as soon as our powers come back, if I get mine before he gets his helmet? I’m still not entirely certain about the ethics of that course of action. I’ll need to take some time to consider and I will let you know the plan as soon as possible.”

Moira looked him dead in the eye. “You know that is not what I’m saying.”

“Well just bloody say it, then.”

“You need to kill him.”

 

* * *

 

“You need to kill him,” Emma said almost casually while brushing her hair. “I’ve been giving it a great deal of thought and it’s really the only logical solution.”

Erik met her eyes in the vanity mirror and tried to look contemplative instead of horrified. He found himself deeply missing the helmet.

“What, do you disagree?” She turned to face him where he was sitting on the edge of the bed.

“I think you’ve jumped to that conclusion rather quickly.”

“I don’t see any way around it. The Professor is far too powerful. The second he gets his power back, he can control all of us. He could do anything he wanted, make _us_ do anything he wanted… It’s too much of a risk.” She shrugged and went back to fixing her hair.

“I understand the risk, but there are alternate methods of containing people. It’s against our code to destroy a fellow mutant.”

Irritation flashed across Emma’s face. “He’s not just ‘people,’ he’s the most powerful telepath we know of. Look, I know you were like in love or something…”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“But you have to be reasonable. You pride yourself on keeping a cool head, but right now you are clearly responding emotionally.”

Erik took a breath to calm himself. Honestly, Emma probably had the right idea, strategically. But he found himself hesitating.

“Come on. You know it’s for the greater good.”

 

* * *

 

“It’s for the greater good, Charles. You have to know how hard it is for me to even think about suggesting this, but there are times when you need to think coldly and strategically. We all have our moral principles, and the strength of yours is part of why I love you, but at what point does one life outweigh hundreds, maybe thousands?”

“We don’t know what the situation will be in six days.”

“We do know that, when he has his helmet, you can’t control Magneto. The second he gets back his powers, he could crush all of this. He could take all of those guards’ guns and turn them around and in less than a second kill everyone here. And that’s not the end of it. He could start a war and suddenly the number of people dying would go up exponentially. You can’t tell me that the life of one man is worth all that?”

That hit him. Charles felt a sudden tightness in the pit of his stomach as he wondered if Moira might not be wrong. But could murder ever be the morally correct solution to anything?  It went against every instinct in him.

Then again, he knew he couldn't trust his instincts when it came to Erik. He had no interest in exploring his feelings on the subject, now or at any time in the near future, but he was aware enough to admit that they were beyond his control.

“I hear you, Moira. I will consider it.”

Moira gave him a look.

“Strongly. That’s the most I’m prepared to say right now, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you, Charles. I know how difficult this is for you.” She cupped his cheek and gave him a  quick kiss and a reassuring smile before leaving.

Less than a minute passed before Raven walked in, eyes wide, having clearly been eavesdropping. “So. You’re going to kill the great Magneto?”

“I really don’t want to discuss this, Raven. It was completely inappropriate for you to listen to that private conversation.”

She shrugged off his annoyance. “Well, I can’t un-hear it now, so I’m here if you want to bounce around some ideas.”

“I do not.”

“But you’re going to take her advice, right? I mean, you have to get at least a little satisfaction out of killing the guy who betrayed and paralyzed you.”

“You’d think so, right? This would all be so much easier if I could just see him as that. But he’s also the man who helped me build this school. He saved my life – all of our lives – countless times. He helped me clarify my thinking and unlock my full potential. If I ever wavered in my commitment to making this work, he was there for me. We were there for each other.”

Raven rolled her eyes. “You are way too sentimental, Charles. The way you talk, it almost sounds like you were in love with the guy.”

Charles refused to meet her eyes. Raven gasped. He didn’t have to say anything – she knew him well enough to understand what his lack of response meant.

“Holy shit, Charles, really? Fuck. You’re gay? When did you know? Did he know? Did you sleep together?”

“Firstly, I believe Kinsey adequately demonstrated that there’s a scale and, secondly, my sex life is none of your business.”

“Oh, my God, you did. Wow, I can’t…” She paused and looked at him thoughtfully. “Actually, come to think of it, that explains a lot, doesn’t it? Now I feel like an idiot.”

Charles ran a hand through his hair. This was not the conversation he wanted to be having at this particular moment.

“So, I’m guessing Moira doesn’t know?”

He shook his head wearily.

“Charles! You have to tell her. For a whole lot of reasons, but most relevant right now, she can’t ask you to kill your… lover. Former lover?” She shrank back a bit from his glare. “Right. She wouldn’t if she knew what she was asking.”

“No, Raven. This stays exclusively between us. My personal life cannot be allowed to interfere with my decision-making. It is my responsibility to do whatever is necessary to protect the students at this school and suffer as little loss of life as possible. That must be the only consideration. Whatever may have happened in the past… It’s irrelevant now. It has to be.”

Raven just looked at him for a moment. “Shit. This whole story is so fucking tragic.”

“Thanks,” he replied drily.

“Seriously, though. Charles. You know I’m here for you no matter what? Whatever you need – shoulder to lean on, shoulder to cry on, verbal punching bag, anything – I’m here.”

“Thank you, Raven. That means a great deal to me.” He was near tears.

She slapped him playfully on the arm. “Come on, don’t get all mushy. It’s kind of insulting, actually. I’m your sister, obviously I love you to death and I’ll always be here if you need me to be.”

Raven pulled Charles into a hug and if Charles didn’t know better he might think she was shedding a few tears of her own.

 

* * *

 

Charles stood at a large bay window, watching his students talk and play in the yard. It was interesting to just observe people without any knowledge of their thoughts. He had been anxious about how this whole situation would affect them, but most seemed to be treating this as a power-free vacation of sorts. He winced in sympathy for Sean, who, without his powers, was taking quite a beating from Alex, but as far as he could tell it was all in good fun.

He knew that he should be thinking over the moral and logistical questions surrounding the potential killing of Erik. _Magneto._ He reminded himself to only think of him by that name. It made things easier, if not by much. Regardless, Charles couldn’t get his brain to focus. He blamed it on the adjustment to not having access to his telepathy. He had to believe that. He did not believe that.

His attention was caught by some of the younger Brotherhood members approaching the group. He tensed and prepared himself to intervene, all too aware of the agents surrounding the grounds that would not hesitate to open fire at the slightest sign of trouble. To his surprise, the groups seemed to blend without any significant problems. He actually found himself smiling when Angel approached Sean and Alex and seemed to have a friendly, if somewhat strained, conversation.

His smile faded when eyes lit on a shadowy patch below an evergreen where Amara was enthusiastically kissing a younger Brotherhood member who Charles recalled having seen on the news punching growing spikes from his head during a fight with police. He sighed to himself. “Really?”

“It’s not a big deal, Professor. They’re just teenagers.”

Charles jumped. It seemed like Erik had appeared out of thin air a foot away from him. “You’re too used to relying on the telepathy, Professor. It would behoove you to practice so you don’t get unpleasantly surprised.”

“Apparently.” Was Erik giving him some sort of warning? He shifted uncomfortably, thinking about the conversation he was having just a few hours before. Could he really…?

Erik gestured towards the evergreen. “After all, I’d think you’d want to encourage that type of thing. It could provide fascinating research opportunities. I’ve wondered myself what type of child two mutants would produce.”

“Yes. But…”

“Ethical objections? I forgot how much you enjoy being morally superior to everyone else.”

“Actually, I was going to say that these would be terrible testing conditions as everyone currently has their powers suppressed. Plus, one pairing wouldn’t be statistically significant, even taking into account the relatively small size of the known and hypothetical mutant populations.”

Erik raised an eyebrow. “So you have given it some thought. Why haven’t you do tests before?”

“It’s not like I’d force people to be together.” Charles glanced over to find that Erik was looking at him thoughtfully. “What?” he asked, trying not to sound self-conscious.

 “Could you? Make someone fall in love?”

Charles pursed his lips, considering carefully before answering. “Not to get overly philosophical about it, but the answer would depend on how you define love. I could create positive feelings around a particular person. I could add false memories. I could mimic chemical signals of attraction. But, and I’m sure you’re going to find this as naïve as you do most of my philosophies, I’d like to believe there’s more to it than just that. I like to believe love is something deeper, something no one could impose or take away.”

He risked another glance at Erik, expecting to find that familiar wry look on his face. Instead, when he met Erik’s eyes, he saw a strange intensity there.

“I’d like to believe that as well,” Erik said softly.

Charles had to fight a sudden urge to move closer. It would be so easy to let himself get lost in those blue-green eyes and forget that there had ever been anything to come between them. Instead, he dragged his gaze away and pretended to be fascinated by a pickup football game outside while he worked to regain his composure.

He felt Erik’s eyes on him still and felt pressed to say something. “Regardless, any of that would be completely unethical. Even when I met a girl I was interested in, I might use my power to learn some facts that could give me an advantage with her, but I would never force a suggestion on her. And, looking back, even that may have been going too far. It’s a challenge for me, but I try to stay out of people’s heads as much as possible unless they are a clear enemy.”

“The world is lucky that it’s you who holds all this power.”

He forced a smile. “Now, I don’t know about that. But I do try to do the right thing.”

They shared a companionable silence.

“I’ve been wondering…” Erik spoke slowly, without looking at him. “On that beach, when I was turning the missiles… If I hadn’t taken Shaw’s helmet…”

Charles stiffened. He knew where this was going and it was a question he had refused to ask, even of himself.

“If you could have gotten in my mind, would you have?”

Charles didn’t answer. He didn’t know if it was even possible for him to. He turned towards Erik to find he was watching him again. Erik took a step towards him, so close now that Charles could feel his breath on his face.

“Am I your enemy, Charles?”

They studied each other carefully and Charles felt that pull again. Was Erik doing this on purpose? Could he possibly know the effect he was having? _He does,_ Charles told himself. _He is trying to manipulate you, to make you back down. Why else would he be doing this?_

Charles took a quick step back. “Honestly? I don’t know.”

In an instant, Erik’s face was completely closed off again. “Well, you should probably figure that out.” He stalked away before Charles had time to respond.

 

* * *

 

Erik was angry. He desperately wanted to be angry at Charles; it would make things easier. _For all you know he’s working with Pace. How else did he know to intercept the plans to steal the prototype? At any moment, he can and will take control of your mind, manipulate your core beliefs. That type of violation deserves death, or worse._

It wasn’t ringing true. He knew why. For a moment, while he was rambling about the science of love, Erik had stopped seeing his nemesis Professor X and instead just saw Charles, the man he loved and thought would always be by his side.

Being in this house again was bringing back memories that he’d almost completely blocked out for years. A shared joke in the kitchen, a subtle touch over a game of chess. The night after Charles helped him move the satellite when he went to his bedroom planning to say thank you, but they were somehow standing too close and then they were kissing, drinking each other in. Clothes coming off and blue eyes watching him as if he was the most wonderful thing in the world. Laughter and moans and limbs tangled in sheets…

He paced and tried to shake off that train of thought. This was the exactly the opposite of what he should be thinking about if he was going to seriously consider Emma’s proposal in a purely logical, strategic manner, but his brain was refusing to cooperate. He decided he to just write this night off as a lost cause and do his best to not think about anything at all. Right now he had to eat something and then go to his mandatory interview with Pace, where he planned to be thoroughly uncooperative. At least that might provide some amusement.

 

* * *

 

Erik was unaware that Charles waited by the chess table for nearly a half hour before concluding that something must have been irreversibly broken and heading to bed.

 

* * *

 

When Erik got out of the interview, fuming and in desperate need of solace or at the very least distraction, he went directly to the study. Charles was not there. Erik scolded himself for feeling as disappointed as he did before going to find Emma.

 

* * *

 

_Interview with Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto  
Conducted by Carlton Pace_

_Power: Metallokinesis_

_Affiliation: Brotherhood, leader_

_Relationship status: Appears to be in a romantic, or at least sexual, relationship with Ms. Frost. Focuses a good deal of attention of Professor Xavier, cause unknown. Previous relationship? Sizing up an enemy? I can’t help but feel there is something useful to us there, still trying to parse what exactly it is._

_Interview Summary: M. Lehnsherr proved to be uncooperative in the extreme. He refused to respond to any of my queries with anything but a glare and sat completely still with his arms crossed for the duration of the interview. I was able to provoke a response at the very end by mentioning that stopping bullets seemed to be beyond his powers, considering what happened to both his mother and the Professor. At this, M. Lehnsherr rose and made a move as if to psychically attack me until a guard subdued him with a gun barrel (one can only hope he appreciated the irony when he awoke)._

_Comments: Our records indicate that M. Lehnsherr is a particularly powerful mutant with a history of aggressiveness towards humanity. Even without his powers, he is a force to be reckoned with - the words "killing machine" came to mind more than once. I recommend that he be treated as such. I do not see an outcome of this trial period that would allow him to be useful to us in any way. Barring contradicting orders from a superior, I plan to have him eliminated. Specifics to be determined at a later point._

_I hope that my interview with Professor Xavier tomorrow provides more insight and, if we are fortunate, a key to his defeat._


	4. Day 3 – What did you expect?

Charles didn’t mind getting up early for his interview with Pace. It allowed him to avoid Moira’s questioning about his plans, not to mention his own tormented thoughts. It might even be a pleasant distraction.

 

* * *

 

It was not a pleasant distraction. Charles left the interview seething and wondering what the hell was wrong with Director Pace. Charles of all people understood that Erik could be difficult, but it sounded as if Pace had been purposefully cruel. But why?

He felt the familiar itch to use his powers and needed to stop walking for a moment to breathe through the accompanying anger. It wouldn’t do anyone any good for him to allow himself to be emotionally compromised, as well.

Besides, he was perfectly capable of reasoning things out on his own. He was strongly beginning to suspect that Pace was purposefully antagonizing Erik in the hope that his anger would overtake his good sense and he’d start a fight he couldn’t win. And it wasn’t as if Erik would ever compromise. Even if he knew Pace’s plan it would only serve to make him angrier, if anything.

So that brought Charles back to Moira’s plan. Leaving the Brotherhood leaderless and lacking direction could, at the very least, make a number of mutants lives easier. At best, they could save hundreds of lives. All he had to do to make it happen was murder his former best friend and lover in cold blood. _Bloody wonderful._

Charles’s reverie was interrupted by a loud crash coming from somewhere on the mansion’s lower levels. He hurried in the direction of the noise and then heard another crash. It sounded like it was coming from the downstairs gym. That was odd. Most of his students avoided the musty place.

He broke into a run when he heard a girl scream. At bottom of the stairs, breathless, he was brought up short by a squat, bug-eyed young man who he vaguely remembered being called Toad standing in front of the closed gym door. The man’s short stature and lack of powers did not take away from the real sense of malice that radiated off of him. He opened his eyes even wider as he studied Charles, than broke into a horrifying grin and took a step closer. "So you're the one..."

It was all Charles could do not to turn and hurry back the way he came. But this was his house and the children here were under his protection and, powers or not, he'd be damned if he let himself be cowed by a four-foot man called Toad. "If you'd kindly explain what is going on..."

"Nothing that concerns you."

"I beg to differ. Regardless of its current occupants, this remains my home and I know I was not imagining someone screaming in there, so I must ask you to step aside, or else. "

"Or else what? Your big blue eyes might work on some people here, but they have no effect on me, and I'm not seeing anything else that should be a concern. Go on, get."

Charles was angry. "If you do not let me into that room this instant, I swear…”

Before he could complete the threat, the door was pulled open and Toad stumbled backwards, nearly knocking into Erik. The taller man moved gracefully out of the way while Toad collapsed past him, then looked back at Charles with what appeared to be nothing more than mild interest. "Yes?"

Charles gawked at him for a moment. Instead of the usual purple getup, Erik had on a black sleeveless shirt and a pair of the grey sweatpants they had all trained in together before Cuba. Charles forcibly brushed aside all the mental associations that brought on and made his voice firm as he asked, "What on earth is going on in there?"

Erik raised an eyebrow and sounded almost playful in response. "Are you sure you want to know? And are you sure we can trust you?"

"Trust me with what? What in God's name do you have in there?"

Erik shrugged and pushed the door further open, enough that Charles could get in but not so much that he didn't have to brush by Erik on his way there. He had to have done that on purposefully to put him on edge, right? It was working, regardless.

All conjectures left Charles’s mind when he was finally able to see inside. The space had been completely transformed. Where there once had been a dusty space cluttered with barely-used equipment, there was now a clean room with floors covered in mats that he didn't recall seeing since before college. What appeared to be all the members of the Brotherhood were spread out across the room in pairs. At first Charles thought they were having some sort of brawl, but then he noticed Azazel and Emma walking from pair to pair, correcting stances and giving encouragement.

When he looked back to Erik, the man had a look on his face that Charles was tempted to dub smug but might have been closer to genuine pride.

"You're training them?"

“Though we expect to get our powers back as quickly as possible, it would not do for everyone to be completely defenseless in the meantime.”

Charles tried to look a bit less impressed. “Is this really a good idea?”

“It never hurts to be prepared.”

A young man with green hair interrupted them. “Is this right, Magneto?”

Erik turned to examine his student’s kick and Charles sucked in a breath when he saw the purple bruise that peaked out from under Erik’s hairline just below his ear. His first instinct was to reach out and brush his fingers along it soothingly, but he resisted the urge and had balled his traitorous hand into a fist by the time Erik turned back to him.

“Did you put something on that?”

Erik shrugged. “I’ve had worse.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s fine. I have more important things to be doing now, Professor.”

He turned around again. Charles fought the urge to wince at that formality. It had never sounded right coming from Erik, whose voice still echoed through his dreams, whispering and growling and moaning his name. Charles felt a pool of heat rising in him at the thought and he mentally shook himself.  What the hell was wrong with him today? He decided to blame it on a lack of adequate sleep, though the way Erik’s sweat-soaked shirt clung to his body as he modelled a kick was likely not helping matters.

Charles forced himself to tune back in and caught the tail end of Erik explaining to the larger group that they should always look to disarm an opponent through surprise before engaging in open battle. He finished discussing what was presumably a technique he had demonstrated earlier in the class. “I assure you that if you try that on someone unsuspecting, you will have them on the ground before they know what hit them, as you have all seen.”

Angel looked at him skeptically. “Excuse me, Magneto, but you can’t really claim that anyone here is ‘unsuspecting’ because we all watched you demonstrate it multiple times.”

“Fair point, Angel. Let’s have demonstration. Everyone, please observe.” Erik had barely raised his voice but the entire room immediately quieted and turned to face him as if he had yelled an order. Charles was begrudgingly impressed.

“There is one person who hasn’t seen.” Erik turned to look at Charles with a faintly amused expression. “Charles, would you mind?”

Erik guided Charles forward without waiting for a response before moving out of his sight. Charles stood still, feeling irrationally anxious. He waited thirty seconds, sixty seconds. He was about to ask if this was some bizarre prank when his legs went out from under him and he found himself falling backwards. An instant before he hit the ground, Erik caught him and effortlessly lifted him back to his feet. Charles blinked in surprise and tried not to breathe too heavily as Erik shot him a faux-innocent smile.

“Does that answer your question?”

Angel looked at him thoughtfully. “I guess. But, wouldn’t that only work if the person you needed to subdue was physically smaller than you?”

“No, you’d just need to use a different technique. I would suggest…”

He was cut off by Charles tackling him and knocking him down to the mat. Erik landed flat on his back and would have gotten another bruise on the back of his head had Charles not ensured that his hands cradled Erik’s head from the impact.

“The element of surprise, is what he would suggest.” Charles couldn’t help his self-satisfied grin.

“Precisely,” Erik wheezed.

Charles removed his hands from the back of Erik’s head and sat up a bit. He was feeling a bit light-headed, which he was certain was the result of falling and standing in rapid succession and had nothing to do with his sudden awareness that he was straddling Erik’s hips. The last time they were in this position was at the start of an evening that had wound its way inextricably into Charles’s memory and had gotten him through quite a few lonely nights. Of course, significantly fewer clothes had been involved.

He shoved those images aside and forced himself to look down at Erik, and noticed the pained expression on his face. “Are you hurt?” Charles asked with concern.

“I’m fine. You maybe want to let me up?”

“Oh! Of course. Sorry about that.” Charles could only hope his flush wasn’t too evident. At least none of his students had seen…

And then he heard Raven’s sardonic voice. “Do I even want to know, Charles?”

He fixed his shirt and turned with a smile pasted on. He was sure it wasn’t fooling Raven, but it was the best he could do at the moment. “Perfectly alright. I was just helping Er… Magneto with a demonstration.”

“A demonstration of what, exactly?”

Erik took that question. “We are training in physical combat so that we are prepared in case we need to defend ourselves while in our powerless states.”

Charles rather envied his ability to appear completely unruffled regardless of circumstance.

“That’s…” Raven cocked her head. “Actually a really good idea. Can I join?”

“Well…”

“Erik, a word?” Emma strode forward and pulled him to the side. She spoke in low tones but Charles caught something about the recklessness of training the very people they may have to fight.

Erik responded, a bit louder, “We do not leave our fellow mutants helpless against an armed group of humans.” He turned to Raven. “Anyone who desires may join.”

Emma stormed out of the room without a word. Raven gave her a moment to get away before rushing off to tell the others.

Charles caught Erik’s eye. “Thank you,” he murmured.

Erik nodded an acknowledgment before turning back to his students.

 

* * *

 

The majority of the afternoon was spent training. The X-Men and Brotherhood members who had already gotten to know each other were thrilled to be working side by side and there was an easy camaraderie developing even between the more skeptical members.

At one point Moira came down looking irritated and Charles was worried he would get another talking to, but Raven headed her off at the pass. Still, Charles couldn’t help but overhear when Moira hissed, “What are you thinking? How have you both forgiven him after everything he did?”

Raven met her hard stare without flinching. “I haven’t. But don’t you see how important it is for us not to be divided right now? We have never been in a more vulnerable position and we need to focus on protecting each other.”   

Moira nodded a reluctant acceptance and Raven went back to practicing. Moira caught Charles’s eye and gave him a little smile and a wave, then leaned back against the wall to observe him working with his students. They were making excellent progress, if he did say so himself.

Charles beamed with pride. When he turned around, he found Erik closer than he thought, returning the smile. Charles moved as if to clap him on the shoulder, then thought better of it and moved to inspect a student’s work.

_This is the man I’m supposed to murder?_

The training session was beginning to wind down as Charles made a final round through his practicing students. In the far corner of the gym, he came upon Raven sitting on top of a prone Hank, who appeared rather flushed.

Charles cleared his throat. “Raven, I believe you have sufficiently demonstrated that you won that round. Want to get up?”

Raven didn’t move except to look him in the eye and smirk, drawling, “Oh. Of course. Sorry about that.”

“I don’t mind,” Hank put in quickly.

“I’m sure.”

“Oh, come on, Charles.” Moira grinned and walked up to him, putting a hand on his arm. “Let people have some fun. Speaking of, I think you have trained more than enough for one day. Want to get out of here?”

Charles returned her smile and took her hand as she led him out of the gym and up the stairs.

He was irrationally proud of himself for not glancing back at Erik.

 

* * *

Erik strode down the long hallway that led to the Brotherhood’s rooms. He wasn’t sure where Charles had gone off to, but his disappearance in addition to the entirely inappropriate feelings provoked by Charles tackling him were making Erik extremely irritable. He decided he might as well get what was becoming his least favorite part of the day over with – trying to seem like he was just being a caring leader while desperately working to ascertain whether Janos was regaining any memory of the events that had led to his injuries.

He stopped outside the open door and saw Emma standing over Janos’s bed, staring intently. “I see,” she said unhappily before glancing up at Erik. She barely bothered to fake a pleasant expression as she said, “Oh, look, Magneto’s here to visit you.”

Erik forced a smile that he was sure was only marginally more convincing then Emma’s as he stepped towards the bed. “Riptide! So glad to see you sitting up. Hopefully this means you’re healing even more quickly than we’d thought.”

Janos nodded and gave him a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Was that fear he saw there, or was he being paranoid? Erik hoped he didn’t sound too anxious as he added, “Do you remember what happened to you yet?”

Janos opened his mouth but was quickly cut off by Emma. “He doesn’t remember anything past when we entered the warehouse. Pity.”

Erik eyed her warily. “Yes, it is. Let me know immediately if you recall any details – we should know who is responsible.”

“Yes.” Emma smirked. “And whoever it is should be punished severely. A lesson needs to be taught here.”

Okay, he definitely wasn’t imagining that.

“Of course. Hope you heal quickly, Riptide.”

Janos nodded wordlessly again. He was a quiet man generally, but this was ridiculous. Erik began to beat a hasty retreat, but Emma followed him. He turned and steeled himself for her fury as she closed Janos’s door.

“What the hell was that downstairs? Why didn’t you just kill him when you had the chance to make it look like an accident?”

“You don’t think it would have seemed just the slightest bit suspicious if I dropped the leader of the X-Men on his head in front of thirty people?”

“Well, you could have at least refused to actively train his students. For all we know, we’ll be fighting them in addition to Pace’s people at the end of the week. And now they know all our techniques.”

“As I told you, regardless of whose side they are on, it is our job to protect our fellow mutants, not to leave them defenseless in the face of a near certain attack.”

“I never thought I’d need to be concerned about you going soft, Magneto. I’ve already been led astray by one man who let his emotions get the better of him. I have no intention of going through that again.”

“You won’t.”

“Excellent. In that case, tell me, when are you going to do it?”

“Do what?”

“Kill Xavier. What is wrong with you? Did you get dropped on your head, too?”

“Actually…”

“Forget it. I want to hear your complete plan by noon tomorrow.”

“Oh, really? Last I checked, I was the leader of the Brotherhood.”

“In name, maybe, but you’re not in spirit if you can’t get over whatever messed up thing happened between you and your dear Professor five years ago.”

“Excuse me?” He hoped the rage buried any creeping anxiety in his voice.

“You heard me. And you know exactly what I’m talking about. Really, is this the same Erik Lehnsherr who pursued Shaw with such single-minded focus that he was willing to drown himself to stop him? Who believed so strongly in his cause that he was willing to forgive and work with Shaw’s people to prepare ourselves for the coming war? You know what you need to do. Let him be the better man. You just need to be the stronger one.”

She turned on a high heel and stormed away before Erik could formulate a response. He stood in mild shock for a moment before making his way back to his room.

Emma wasn’t wrong. Even if he ultimately decided on a different course of action, he most certainly shouldn’t be getting closer. How would he bring himself to kill Charles?

Erik peeled off his clothes and stepped into the shower, hoping that soothing feel of the hot water on his skin would help him calm his mind enough to figure out the answer.

A few minutes late, he knew. He wouldn’t.

Regardless of what the tactically correct answer was, Erik had to accept that he was incapable of allowing any harm to come to the man. The whole mess with Riptide was proof of it. Unpleasant as it might be, admitting weakness was far less dangerous than being caught unawares in the midst of battle, especially by oneself. Charles Xavier was a weakness.

For lack of a better plan, Erik turned off the water and prepared to hear down to the study.

 

* * *

 

Charles looked up and smiled as Erik entered the study. “I didn’t think you were going to show tonight.”

“Then why are you here?” Erik asked. He walked to the wet bar and fixed himself a drink before taking the seat opposite Charles.                  

Charles had already set up the board and made his first move. It was the English Opening, one he knew Erik could easily recognize and counter, but Charles was more concerned with finding a tactful way to bring up what he knew about Erik’s interview with Pace.

After they exchanged a few moved in silence, Charles decided to accept that there wasn’t one, so he might as well just come out with it. “So, Director Pace…”

“An arrogant prick who doesn’t deserve to draw breath. Nothing more to be said.”

Well then. This wasn’t going to be as easy as Charles had hoped. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. “I only mention him because, during my consultation this morning, he mentioned some of the events that transpired during yours...”

“I don’t want to discuss it.”

“Come now. You should talk to somebody. It’s not healthy to let hurt and rage build up inside of you unchecked and just pretend it’s not there.”

“You don’t say?” Erik gave him a penetrating look.

Charles felt himself blushing. “I’m not saying I’m that person.  God knows I have plenty of my own issues that I’m refusing to deal with at the moment. That said, it appears to be Pace’s goal to set us off. And he did not succeed with me and clearly did with you, so it would seem that you need more help in that regard.”

“I am fine. Thank you for your concern.”

“Please listen. I think Pace is purposefully trying to make you angry.”

“Oh, you think?”

“Shut up. I mean that he is trying to make you so upset that you don’t think logically and do something stupid like attack him and/or get yourself declared an enemy of the state.”

Erik shook his head in disbelief. “You don’t think I’m already there? The man stole the most vital parts of all of our identities and is keeping us trapped here like animals in a zoo. It doesn’t matter what he says or does to me – submitting to his terms was never an option. The real question isn’t whether I’m getting angry; it’s why you aren’t.”

Charles leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. “This conversation feels familiar, old friend. I’d tell you that you’re being shortsighted and potentially endangering many mutant lives, but you’d just tell me that life in a cage isn’t worth living. And so on. So there really isn’t much of a point in dredging up old problems, is there?”

“I suppose not.”

“Still, you should talk things out with someone. Why don’t you go to Emma?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Aren’t you…” Charles hesitated. Had he completely misread the situation? He really was bloody useless at understanding people without his telepathy. “Together? Romantically, I mean.”

“We sleep together sometimes. There’s a difference.”

“Oh?”

“I know you're a better person than me, Charles, but don't act like you've only ever slept with people for true love. Sometimes a situation is stressful and someone is there and passably attractive and that's it.”

“I see.”

Erik stared intently at the board with a concentration that was belied by moving a rook to a space where Charles was easily able to capture it with a knight.

Charles raised an eyebrow at him and Erik changed the subject. “How about you and Moira? That seems like it’s actually healthy.”

“I care for Moira deeply. But… she’ll never be able to fully understand what I’m going through. Not really.”

Erik looked oddly amused. “So I have sex without love and you have love but no sex. Well done. Maybe we should trade off.”

Charles tried to look scandalized but ended up chuckling. “Not sure that suggestion would be much appreciated by any party involved.”

“Fair enough.” He shrugged. “I still don’t entirely see what the problem is with Moira.”

“It’s not just her – it’s everyone here.” Charles hesitated. He hadn’t spoken this aloud to anyone before. But if there anyone who had even a vague chance of understanding, it would be Erik. “So, I catch myself thinking… This is terrible.”

“It’s you, so I seriously doubt it’s as terrible as you think it is. But go on.”

“Sometimes I catch myself thinking that they fixed me more for their sake then mine.” Charles looked down at his hands folded in his lap. “The first day I crossed the yard by myself, everyone watched and cheered. They were so fucking happy. And I should have been happy too, but instead all I could think was that this was it, my excuses were gone. Even the modicum of self- pity they'd accepted from me when I was in the chair would no longer be tolerated. And rightly so.”

He risked a glance up at Erik, who was watching him without judgment, if not with understanding. Charles continued, “That night, Moira came to me. She was so beautiful, so full of joy. She smiled and walked towards me, slowly taking off her clothes…”

Was he imagining the sudden tightness in Erik’s expression? Probably. “You get the idea. And I should have been… excited? Grateful? Happy? Any or all of those, really. But I had looked into her eyes. And when I looked there I saw love. Real, deep love, so strong I could feel it even without telepathy.”

He paused and Erik stared at him uncomprehendingly. “And?”

“And I couldn’t do it. She loves me. She deserves so much better.”  
  
“Don't say that. Anyone would be fortunate to have you in their life. Maybe _you_ deserve better.”

Charles shrugged that off. “She’s wonderful Truly. I can’t tell you how much I wish I could feel the same way. But I don’t.”

“You can’t choose who you love, Charles.”

“No. No, you cant. Regardless, I had to ask her to leave. And she’s tried a few time more, but I just haven’t been able to bring myself to say yes.”

“It’s not like she’s asking you to marry her. It’s just sex.”

“I can’t do that. I would just be hurting her.”

“What, and you’re not hurting her now?” Charles was surprised by the forcefulness of Erik’s response. “You walk around arm in arm, you’re sharing a bed… Isn’t that leading her on? I don’t understand your logic here. Sex doesn’t have to be that big a deal. Emma and I have never stopped hating each other. Or ourselves, for that matter. We probably never will. But we work long days and it’s stressful and we both have too much that we need to forget. So, it works out.”

“I hear you. And I don’t judge you for that. But, for me… Sometimes having her there with all that love, having the students there with all their energy and support and admiration… I can’t tell you how lonely I feel.”

Erik looked struck and there was silence for a moment. Charles shifted in his seat, feeling exposed. So much for the image of the calm, confident leader he wanted to project. He supposed he should have known better than to think Erik wouldn’t see through that.

After a moment, Erik ventured, “I’m sure there are plenty of women you could be happy with, Charles. Whom you could eventually bring yourself to love.”

“Perhaps. But, as wonderfully romantic as someone I can eventually come around to maybe loving sounds, is it really asking too much to want more? To want someone who I can be attracted to, but also who I can speak to endlessly and spend time with in silence and want to come home to every night and…”

“What? And drink and debate and play chess and fuck?”

Charles felt himself go red. They were treading on dangerous territory here. “Don’t be crude.”

“Charles. You have the opportunity to have such an amazing life. If you find someone – another woman, Moira, even, if you give yourself more time to heal - you can start a family and you can be happy. It’s too late for me. I’m already too far gone and I’m fine with that. But you wouldn’t be. You aren’t. You have the chance to have such a bright future.”

“I know. So, why do I keep looking back?”

They stared at each other. Erik leaned towards him and for a wild moment Charles that he was about to kiss him, but instead Erik patted him on the shoulder and rose to leave.

“Because you’re a complete idiot, Charles.”

 “Wait, what about the game?”

“Mate in two,” Erik called back on his way out the door.

Charles looked down at the chessboard and saw that he was right.

“Bloody hell.”

 

* * *

 

_Interview with Professor Charles Xavier, aka Professor X  
Conducted by Carlton Pace_

_Power: telepathy (including mind control)_

_Affiliation: heads the Xavier Institute, based out of his childhood home_

_Relationship status: Romantically involved with Moira MacTaggert._

_Interview Summary: Professor Xavier appears to be quite amenable to accepting the offer to register. He had an unfortunate number of questions about the specific nature of the duty that would be required of all registered mutants and I told him I would get him a document with full details. No need to provide.  
The Professor was less cooperative when asked about M. Lehnsherr. All that Prof. Xavier would share was that he is a man with strong convictions, which he respects though he disagrees with his approach. When I asked about the reaction to the bullets comment, he rose and called me some British-isms that I couldn't quite make out but I'm certain were unfriendly before waling out. Potentially problematic. _

_Comments: I am certain Prof. X will join us and encourage his staff and students to as well. This makes him our strongest ally right now, so we must be careful to not upset him for the time being. However, once powers are regained, he will instantly be able to determine the intentions of everyone around him, which for obvious reasons is not in our best interest. We want to keep the loyalty of his students, so direct assassination is not advisable. If M Lehnsherr was implicated and then done away with, it would resolve both outstanding issues at once. Strongly recommended._

_Note that my source tells me the so-called “X-Men” and “Brotherhood of Mutants” are getting along too well – plan to resolve tomorrow._


	5. Day 4 - I couldn’t bear the thought

“Not too bad for one day of practice, right?”

Charles smiled at Erik’s obvious pride. Pace wasn’t due to arrive until evening, so they were taking the opportunity to have everyone train in the main rooms of the mansion. Charles and Erik were skirting the edges of the group and strategizing about potential exit and entry points. They stopped when they reached the mansion’s front door.

“Four inches of solid oak,” Charles informed him. “Would likely stop bullets. But I’m not certain enough of that to wager anyone’s life on it.”

Erik studied the door. He opened his mouth to speak, but then he froze and his gaze fixed on the brass knob. His eyes widened and he slowly lifted a hand. Charles watched, a tight feeling in his chest, until Erik lowered his hand again and looked chagrined. “Sorry. I thought… Never mind.” 

Charles laid a hand on his arm in sympathy. “I hear things. Whenever there’s a whisper or a faraway-sounding voice, I get this thrill until I realize that’s all it is.”

“Only a few more days.” Erik tried for a comforting smile. He didn’t quite get there, but Charles was touched by the effort nonetheless. “Anyway, that door should probably be…” Erik trailed off and his gaze fixed on something behind Charles, all warmth leaving his face.

Charles was hit with a deep sense of dread even before he turned around to see a grinning Carlton Pace step through the opening door.  

“Magneto! Professor! I hadn’t realized you two were on speaking terms again. You see, this week hasn’t been all bad.”

“What do you want, Pace?” Erik’s voice was so low it was nearly a growl.

Charles inched forward in an attempt to insert himself between the two men, but Pace’s answering smirk indicated that he’d been less subtle than he had hoped.

Pace stood aside to allow no less than fifteen armed agents through the door. As they spread out to station themselves throughout the room, Pace turned and slammed the door as hard as possible to ensure that he had the attention of the room. “Hello again! Now, just what do we have here? Have you all taken your imposed vacation time as an opportunity to catch up on some cardio kickboxing?”

He was met with a sea of blank looks. Charles considered attempting a lie, but decided against it. By this point, it was blatantly obvious what they were doing.

Pace just kept smiling and continued, “I am here to present you with your first opportunity to demonstrate your dedication to being part of the United States Mutant Division.  It is absolutely essential for the Department of Mutant Affairs to fully understand the role of mutants in what is now commonly referred to as the ‘Cuban Missile Crisis.’ As we are gifted with having as our guests the very mutants who were there, I ask that you all join me in recreating the events that transpired on that beach.”

A moment of shocked silence came over the group and then nearly everyone started speaking at once. Pace raised his voice to be heard above the din. “This is, of course, entirely voluntary, but do know that I will be forced to take non-participation as a sign that you are unwilling to cooperate. Such recalcitrance will be remembered when considering eligibility for the Mutant Division program. And we all recall the alternative, yes?”

Charles took a deep breath to calm himself, trying to ignore the tension he felt radiating off Erik behind him. “Director Pace, if I may. I would be glad to assist you in any capacity I am able. However, you must understand that the events of which you speak are quite painful memories for many of those present here.”

“Yourself most of all, I imagine?” He made no effort to lower his voice to shield his words from the assembled group.

Charles felt Erik shift forward and he put a hand on Erik’s arm to keep him from approaching any further. Pace took a moment to pointedly stare and make clear that he had taken note of the gesture before continuing. “I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but I’m afraid I must insist on your cooperation. It has been decided that this is essential knowledge for national security.”

Charles glanced behind him. His students were watching him closely, prepared to follow his lead wherever it might take them. His eyes met Moira’s and she nodded subtly. He could not afford to let emotions, however unpleasant, put any of their lives in jeopardy. “Alright, Director. We will help you.”

“I most certainly will not.” Erik wrenched free of his grip and stared daggers at Pace. Pace gestured and all agents in the room pointed their guns directly at Erik. “I thought this was ‘entirely voluntary’?”

“Of course it’s voluntary, Mr. Lehnsherr. You are free to leave if you do not wish to participate. But, as I mentioned, it will be noted.”

Erik continued to glare at him, then shot Charles a disappointed look before beginning to walk away.

Pace cleared his throat. “Everyone who is coming with me, please make your way to the South Lawn, where my people have been setting up. We are doing everything in our power to make this reenactment as realistic as possible.”

This made Erik pause. He turned back to Pace and spat, “You are a fucking sadist.”

“Now, now, Mr. Lehnsherr. I'm not a sadist, I'm a scientist.”

 Erik laughed grimly. “Yeah, I've heard that one before.”

Emma and Azazel exited the room with him and were followed soon after by the rest of the Brotherhood.

A hand clapped down heavily on Charles shoulder. “It would appear any forged alliances were merely temporary, eh, Professor?”

Charles hated Pace’s ability to enunciate _Professor_ as if it had quotation marks around it. He tried to focus on that irritation instead of the crumbling feeling in his chest as he cleared his throat and instructed his people to follow Pace out of the house.

Pace’s agents held everyone who had not been present on the beach back on the edge of the grass. When Charles arrived on the main part of lawn with Moira, Raven, Alex, Hank, and Sean in tow, he looked around in dismay at the large stone planters that must have been taken from the garden and placed to represent the ships and tree line.

Pace marched out with a thick binder in his hands. “It would appear that we are missing one of the most vital roles in this story. It thus falls to me to read the part of Erik Lehnsherr, aka ‘Magneto.’ I will be going off this report filed by former Agent MacTaggert – please let me know if you notice any deviations from the actual event.”

Charles whispered to Moira under his breath. “You filed a report on us for this?”

“Please keep in mind that you were still in a coma and I was very angry when I wrote it.”

“Brilliant.” Charles sighed as Pace took his place in front of the begonia planter that presumably represented the submarine.

When Pace spoke, it was loud enough for all assembled to hear. “We have first-hand reports from our ships’ officers up until your plane and Shaw’s submarine crashed onto the beach. Mr. Lehnsherr tore a hole in the side of the submarine and disappeared inside. And then what?”

“I have no idea.”

That gave Pace pause. Charles couldn’t help feeling a hint of satisfaction at that.

“Professor, you expect me to believe that, despite your ability, you have absolutely no idea what transpired between Shaw and Lehnsherr?”

“As you may recall, there was a telepathy-blocking helmet involved.”

“Agent MacTaggert’s report indicates that you started screaming ‘as if in agony.’ Am I to take it that that was a random coincidence?”

“Perhaps I was concerned when the helmet cut off my telepathy. It’s all a bit blurry, I’m afraid.”

Pace narrowed his eyes. “Are you protecting him?”

“I have no reason to,” Charles replied with forced indifference.

“No, you don’t, do you?” Pace gave him a hard stare before turning to the rest of the assembled group. “Alright, let’s begin. According to Agent MacTaggert’s incident report, you young people all stand on the sidelines uselessly I march the body out like... Like Jesus? Why?”  
  
Moira shrugged. “Still unclear on the symbolism there, actually.”  
  
“And then I fly? When did I start being able to do that?”  
  
“Also unclear.”  
  
“Ugh. But I am wearing the stupid looking helmet at this point, right?”  
  
“Yes, sir.”  
  
“Splendid.” He motioned for one of his agents to come to him and the young man stepped forward holding what appeared to be Erik’s actual helmet.

Charles was surprised Pace hadn’t been lying about it being in the house, but it seemed rather unnecessary for this exercise. He didn’t like to think that Pace saw this as some sort of amusing game, but he couldn’t help the sinking feeling in his gut as Pace donned the helmet in a manner that could only be described as gleeful.

“Positions, everyone! Now, I step towards you and make a big pretentious speech...”   
  
Raven snorted. “It wasn’t pretentious!”   
  
“Her words.” Pace glanced towards Moira and winked, either not noticing or not caring about her growing discomfort. “And then I go on about missiles or something.”  
  
Charles couldn’t help himself from retorting, “He was telling us that the ships were going to fire on us. And he was correct.”  
  
“Look at you defending him.”

“Well, in this particular instance…”

“Surprising, given what we all know is coming next.”

Charles was taken aback by the malicious gleam in his eyes. _He meant that to hurt_.

“Hey!” Raven shouted and stepped towards Pace. “Remind us the point of all of this again? Cause, not gonna lie, it kind of seems like it’s just an excuse for you to be a dick.”

Charles gaped in horror as Pace looked over at Raven in surprise. “I don’t need an excuse for that, Ms. Darkholme. I am simply trying to be as thorough as possible. It is no fault of mine if any of you acted in ways you would come to regret.”

“This is bullshit. You do what you think you have to, Charles, but I’m done with this.” Raven gave Pace a parting glower before storming away.

“I can try to talk to her,” Charles offered conciliatorily, but Pace shook his head.

“It’s fine. She’s not that important a piece of the story, anyway. Moving on. Now, a truly ludicrous number of missiles are launched and we all prepare to die, but then I stop them and contemplate turning them around. You tell me to stop.” He paused and then gestured to Charles in annoyance. “Come on, tell me to stop! And make sure to phrase it in the worst possible way you could to a holocaust survivor.”

Charles tried to fight down the flush on his face but he was certain it was apparent to everyone in his vicinity. How many times had he replayed this exact scene in his head and cursed himself for being so stupid? No matter how many times Raven told him that what happened after wasn’t his fault, he couldn’t help thinking that Erik was open and listening to him and if only he’d said something else, anything else, maybe they could be…

“Professor Xavier?

Charles glared openly and gritted, “They were only following orders.”

“Thank you. So, then I ignore you completely and send the missiles towards the ships and then you… tackle me?” He glanced down at his expensive grey suit. “Let’s skip reenacting that. Pretend you tackled me and I punched you and MacTaggert here started firing at me. I’m concentrating on missiles and completely ignoring you by this point, so I deflect the bullets without looking.” Pace glanced over to one of his agents and made an odd gesture. “And then…”

A shot rang out. The noise reverberated through Charles’s skull and his vision began to go fuzzy. He was vaguely aware of falling to the ground and he felt a sharp pain in the small of his back followed by a creeping numbness.

He looked up to see Erik looming over him, looking almost amused. No, this wasn’t right, this wasn’t Erik… “Where’s Raven?”

“Raven left you. I’m leaving, too. We don’t want the same thing, do we?”

“No, Erik…”

He heard Moira shouting something behind him but he couldn’t quite make it out. _Pace._ Pace, right, this wasn’t…

“Look at me, Charles!”

His focus went immediately back to Erik. “Erik, please. We’re… we’re brothers, you and I. We should be together, protecting each other.”

“Brothers? Is that what you want to call it?” Erik laughed. “You helped me find Shaw and made me strong enough to kill him. You know I would have said or done anything for that. What’s left for us now? Look at you, you’re useless to me.”

Charles felt tears welling up in his eyes. He struggled to get up but he couldn’t move. His voice sounded broken as he begged one more time, “Please, stay with me.”

Erik just smirked and shook his head. “Did you really think you meant anything to me? You’re pathetic. I won’t even apologize; you deserve everything you’re getting.” He laughed and walked away.

Charles was openly sobbing now. The next thing he knew, Moira was kneeling next to him and lifting his head into her lap. “Charles? Charles, come on. Come back.”

“I can’t feel my legs. I can’t feel my legs.”

“No, Charles, you’re here at the house. You’re safe. We’re all safe. Everything’s fine. Just breathe. Come on, honey, breathe.”

Breathing felt like a struggle, but Charles forced in as much air as he could and came back to himself. He felt his toes moving and sighed in relief.

“Good. Okay now, Charles, take another deep breath and then I want you to open your eyes.”

When he finally did, Charles saw Moira’s concerned face hovering over him and Pace a little ways behind, doing a remarkably poor job of trying to look concerned. A quick glance around confirmed that all of his students were staring at him with a mix of pity and horror. He closed his eyes again and tried to ignore the sensation of tears drying on his cheeks.

“Are we finished?” He heard Moira all but snarl at Pace.

“Yes. I think our work here is done.” He sounded like he was far away.

Moira also sounded distant as she yelled, “Hank, Alex, come help me.”

A moment later, Charles felt strong hands lift him up and begin to walk him inside before everything faded into a merciful blackness.

 

* * *

 

Erik sat in an armchair in the library, fuming. He had come in here to avoid Emma and find something to distract himself from his mounting desire to kill Carlton Pace, but nothing he picked up worked. He had given up by this point and was considering the multiple things he could do to the man once he regained his powers when he heard a faint knock on the door frame. He saw Raven standing there looking like she was not in a much better mood than he was. He gestured vaguely towards the seat opposite him and she threw herself down in it, sighing.

“Well, that was awful.”

“That’s not really a surprise, is it? What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. Pace is an asshole, but you know that.”

“Yeah. Think your brother is any closer to figuring it out?”

“I think he realizes it, but he also thinks there’s a way this could all end well.”

“Raven. Do you believe there is any possibility of this ending a peaceful way?”

“No. Of course not.”

“So you see that we have to fight.”

She surprised him by giving him a smile that almost bordered on affectionate. “You are aware that there are more than two extreme sides to everything, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly. You and my brother have that in common. I think there are ways this could end that involve fewer people dying, but if I’m being honest, no, I don’t think there’s actually an option with a happy ending. But, what else are we supposed to do? We’re not going to win an all-out war in this state.”

“So you do think there’s a war coming?”

She rolled her eyes before her face turned serious. “Yes, I do.”

 “I have to say, it sounds like your views are closer to the Brotherhood’s that the X-Men’s.”

“Maybe they are. Hell, I probably should have stayed with you.”

“But..?”

“But he needs me. I’m all he’s got. He doesn’t have anyone else, not really. Never has. Well, maybe at one point…” She looked at him meaningfully until Erik looked away. “But that’s over, obviously.”

“Obviously.” He felt himself shifting in his seat and mentally berated himself for doing so. Since when had he had so much difficulty keeping his emotions in check? “Look, I…”

“No, no. I don’t need to hear it. It’s over, I get it.”

“I never meant to hurt him.”

“Well, sure. But, you did, didn’t you?”

Erik had nothing to say to that, so he just looked at his hands and focused on not clenching them into fists until Raven spoke again.

“Anyway. There’s no point in dwelling on the past. I just… There’s one thing I need to ask.” She waited to continue until he looked up and met her eyes. “Did you love him?”

He rose at that and walked to the window, looking out blankly. “I don’t see why that could possibly matter at this point.”

“It probably doesn’t. But I like to think that, at some point in his life, Charles was able to have at least a few moments of real happiness. Cause, to be honest, I feel like opportunities for any of us to be happy are pretty well in the past at this point.”

He glanced back at her, but Raven was looking fixedly at the wall opposite him. Erik couldn’t help thinking that there was something terribly wrong about someone so young having so much sadness in her eyes.

“I should go. I have my interview with our lovely director in a few hours and I need all the time I can get to get Zen enough to not stab him in the face.”

She rose and Erik felt a sudden urge to comfort that had become foreign to him. He opened his mouth, but couldn’t bring himself to say anything other than a gentle, “Have a good night, Raven.”

“Have a good night, Erik.”

Raven was long gone before it occurred to him that it was the first time in years that someone had used his given name.

 

* * *

 

It was dark out by the time Charles woke up.

He felt fear, grief, and humiliation flicker through him before all of his wild emotions congealed into a deep, dark rage.  He shoved the covers off and straightened his clothes. He began to make his way to the door but was intercepted by Moira, who was entering with a tray of food. “Charles! You’re awake. How are you feeling? Please, come sit back down on the bed, you are in no condition to be strolling around.”

Charles didn’t move. Moira set the tray down on a side table and put a concerned hand on his arm. “Charles, I think you had some sort of PTSD triggered flashback. You need rest and some time to sort things through.”

“First, there’s someone I need to speak to.”

“Charles, whatever you saw or heard today… It wasn’t real.”

He gave her a dark look and began to push past her. “It was close enough.”

“Charles, this is really not a good idea. I have to insist that you get back in bed and…” She grabbed his arm and before he could think about what he was doing, Charles shoved her out of the way and yanked the door open.

He heard the horror in her voice as asked what was wrong with him, but he couldn’t deal with that right now. With a harsh warning for her not to follow him, he was out the door.   
  
Erik was already waiting by the chess set in the study when Charles walked in. “Chess?” 

“Not tonight. Tonight, I just need a drink.” Charles poured himself a generous serving of scotch as Erik watched with concern.

“I take it things didn’t go well.”

“It was awful.”

Erik seemed unable to help himself from being sarcastic. “What, you mean it was almost like Pace was being pointlessly cruel just to mess with you? Shocking.”

Charles shot him a nasty look. “Don't be glib.”

“I don’t mean to be, it’s just that this is exactly what I told you. What I’ve been telling you all along. This type of thing is what they do. The humans are afraid of us, so...”

“See, there it is again.” Charles began to pace the length of the room, the anger waiting just under the surface beginning to emerge. “You’re so repulsively myopic. You act like they're all the same. It's that type of small-minded thinking that leads to murders and terror attacks and all of our kind being hunted down like bloody animals because that’s how we’ve been acting.”

“And what does your type of thinking leading to? A future where we all cheerfully sign up to be tortured by men like Pace? This is why I told you when had to band together and protect each other.”

“Right, like you protected Janos?”

“He disobeyed orders and nearly compromised the mission. He deserved it,” Erik sputtered, rising from his chair.

Charles shook his head in disgust. "How do you sleep at night?"

"I rarely do. But I do what has to be done, as do you - don't act all judgmental and innocent. Back on that beach, I may have killed Shaw, but you held him there. You’re just as guilty as if you put the coin through his head yourself."

"And that weighs on my mind every day."

"But you did it, because you understood that sometimes, often even, sacrifices must be made for the greater good."

"No, you bloody idiot, I did it because he would have killed you!” Charles stopped and faced him. He was standing way too close but he couldn’t bring himself to care at the moment. “And I am well aware that it's not my place to judge who deserves to live and who deserves to die, but in that moment all I could think was that I couldn't bear the thought of living in a world without you in it.”

The words hung in the air between them. For once, Erik had nothing to say.  Charles saw anger, and maybe something else battling for control, but Erik remained frozen.

Charles turned away. “And then you got me shot and you left me.”

“I asked you to come with me and you wouldn’t.”

Charles whirled on him. “And you left me! You took away my most basic moral foundation, made me complicit in a man’s death, paralyzed me for three fucking years of my life, and you weren’t there. And I hated you for it. I’d still hate you for it if I hadn’t learned a long time ago that you weren’t worth the effort. I had more important things to concern myself with.”

“Oh, _you_ had more important things? What, like babysitting children and making nice with the very people who are trying to destroy us? The people who have you and your students trapped helpless in your own home? Excellent work there. Meanwhile I was out there risking my life for years to try to make sure that they could never do anything like this. You should have been there, but instead you’re here cowering in a mansion.”

“You killed innocent people.”

“None of them are innocent!”

“Do you hear yourself? You spent so many years trying to kill Shaw to get revenge for your mother’s death. I’m sure she’d be proud to know you’ve basically become him. She was human. You might as well have shot her through the head yourself.”

There was a moment of stunned silence. Charles was beginning to realize he had gone too far, but a pure, blind rage had seized Erik and he fired back before Charles could say anything more. “And I suppose your mother was proud of you? She hated you so much they couldn’t even stand to live with you. The only person who cared for you at all was Raven. She might have even loved you, but you rejected her and she ended up in my bed.”

Charles reeled back as if struck. “What?”

“Oh, she never mentioned that?”

“Fuck you.”

“I’m sure you’d like to.”

Charles had never wanted to punch anyone more in his life. “Get out.”

“We aren’t finished here.”

“On the contrary, Magneto, I truly think we are.”

Erik slammed the door so hard on his way out that the paintings trembled on the walls.

Charles turned and shoved the table with the chessboard over, sending pieces scattering across the room. He searched for something else to take his rage out on and, instead, sat down and sobbed.

 

* * *

 

_Interview with Raven Darkholme, aka Mystique  
Conducted by Carlton Pace_

_Power: Shape-shifting_

_Affiliation: Xavier Institute teacher_

_Relationship status: I believe she is involved with Hank McCoy, aka Beast. Not relevant for our purposes._

_Interview Summary: A more generous person might describe Ms. Darkholme as “fiery.” I feel “obstinate” is more accurate. I consider myself fortunate to have begun this interview before she was made aware of her brother’s unfortunate mental breakdown on the lawn (which was, of course, completely unintentional); she might otherwise have been completely impossible to manage. Even so, she went on at some length with a series of preposterous allegations regarding today’s beach exercise. I reaffirmed that it is in the best interests of the United States government to know what happened there and that it was no fault of mine that the exercise proved fruitless. I also suggested that, had she fully cooperated, she might be in a better position to criticize and even potentially to effect change. It was at this point that I mentioned the Professor’s incident after she deserted. She proceeded to stand and quite loudly emit a string of profanity that I am not comfortable replicating here until I had my guards escort her out._

_Comments: Problematic. Today's events sadly confirm my longstanding theory about these mutants - peace was never an option. Requesting that we move to protocol C._


	6. Day 5 – Do you want me to say that I love you?

Charles had barely slept at all. He should have known better that to let himself engage with Erik like that. But Pace’s mind games had reopened an old wound and, try as he might, Charles hadn’t been able to staunch the outpouring of long-buried hurt and anger and grief. Of course it had been too much to hope that Erik would respond with anything resembling compassion or even guilt.

He contemplated remaining locked in his room all day, but that would entail being alone with his thoughts. Without the gentle, ever-present buzzing of other minds to distract him, that would be torture. Besides, he had a responsibility to his students. He was perfectly capable of ignoring particular people, if they even bothered to show up.

The course of his morning determined, he wasted no time in pulling on a tracksuit and downing a bowl of cereal before heading down to the gym. It was set up with a square of mats in the center, sparring pairs spread evenly around it. Pointedly ignoring everyone on the far side of the room, Charles made his way over to where Raven, Hank, and Moira were huddled in a corner.

“Good morning, all.”

All three glanced up at him, startled. Moira looked concerned and Hank looked vaguely guilty, but what concerned Charles most was the way Raven’s eyes lit up and her lips curved into a suggestive smirk. “Charles!” she said. “Just the person I’ve been looking for. A bunch of the students are starting to get frustrated that all we do is practice the same techniques over and over. They want to mix things up.”

“So what are you suggesting, we let them really fight each other?”

“Of course not, that would be a terrible idea. I have a far better one.” She stepped on to the center mat and loudly cleared her throat until she had the attention of the room. “Alright, everyone. I can’t help but get the impression that you’re itching to see some real action. Of course it’s important to drill, but how will what we’re learning come into play in a real fight? Want to find out?”

An answering chorus of eager agreement arose from the crowd. Raven laughed. “Don’t get too excited. I don’t trust most of you to not accidentally kill each other in the process. Instead, we’re going to have a little demonstration.  Charles, Erik. Can you get up here, please?”

Charles blanched. _Damn it, Raven._ He glanced over and saw that Erik was hesitating. He used the opportunity to step forward quickly and lean close to Raven’s ear, trying to keep the edge out of his voice. “Hey, can we discuss this for a moment?”

“What?” She batted her eyes innocently. “You want me to wrestle with him instead?”

The abrupt wave of nausea that came over Charles at the thought stopped him from arguing further. By then, Erik had made it to the mat and was nodding politely at Raven, apparently doing everything in his power to avoid looking at Charles.

Raven lowered her voice to address them both. “It’s important for them all to see that they’ll actually be able to use everything we’re teaching them. So, like, what you did the first day we were down here was great. Try to incorporate as many of the moves we’ve focused on that you can. Got it?”

She stepped back off the mat and raised her voice again. “Okay, guys, shake hands.”

Charles steeled himself as Erik stepped towards him with a hand extended. When their hands clasped, Erik leaned close to him and snarled, “Guess we aren’t finished. Have anything else you’d like to say about my mother?”

“Have anything else you’d like to say about my sister?” Charles shot back. Erik responded with a sneer and Charles suddenly wanted nothing more than to wipe it off his face.

They dropped hands and took a step back. Raven apparently hadn’t heard any of their exchange as her voice remained loud and cheerful as she announced, “Okay, guys, on three. One, two, thr… Holy shit.”

Before she had finished the word, Charles stepped forward and punched Erik in the jaw, knocking him to the mat. Charles vaguely heard Alex’s cheer of “Yeah, you go, Professor!” mixed with murmurs of apprehension from the Brotherhood group, but he could only focus on the man he’d just floored.

Surprise crossed Erik’s face for a second before it was replaced with his terrifying blend of focus and rage. He swept a leg out and caught Charles behind the ankles, sending him sprawling backwards. With no one to catch him this time, the back of Charles’s head hit the mat hard and his vision blurred. He recovered in time to roll away and avoid Erik pinning him down.

As Charles scrambled to his feet, he heard Hank anxiously asking Raven if this was what was supposed to be happening. Ignoring her response, Charles went into a crouch and watched Erik do likewise. A bruise was blossoming along Erik’s left jaw.

They circled each other a few times before Erik feinted left and Charles leaned out of the way. Erik used the moment of distraction to get a hand on his right shoulder and twist him around, shoving him towards the nearest wall. Charles’s face slammed into the mirrored wall and he cursed as he heard a splintering noise and felt glass slice skin. He pulled back enough to see blood dripping down a gash on his right cheek. Erik looked momentarily struck by the sight and Charles used the opportunity to spin around and launch himself at the taller man. Pain urged him on as he got his hands around Erik’s neck and began to squeeze. He felt Erik’s larger hands clasp around his own neck and began to struggle for air.

He was beginning to see spots and wonder which of them was going to pass out first when a screaming Raven shoved them apart. “Hey, what the fuck, guys? Cool off!”

Erik looked like he was ready to come at him again, but Raven inserted herself between them.

“I said, cool off! Work out your issues on your own time.” She looked to Erik. “You, get out. Moira and Hank, you take this over.”

With one last fierce look at Charles, Erik turned and walked out. Hank began to usher the students towards the opposite side of the room as Raven turned to face Charles, disappointment mingling with the anger in her eyes. “You, come with me.”

She half shoved Charles into the locker room and waited until the heavy door was completely closed before shouting, “What the fuck is wrong with you? What happened to your personal life not interfering?”

“I’m sorry,” he muttered.

“Oh, you’re sorry. Great. That completely undoes everything that just happened in front of all of your students. Damn it, Charles. Look at yourself!”

He glanced towards a mirror on one of the walls and winced. The bleeding from the cut on his cheek had slowed, but there was drying blood streaked down the side of his face and he would never be able to salvage this shirt. Bruises in the distinct shape of fingerprints circled his neck. He turned away and felt the pounding in his head begin to intensify. “What do you want from me, Raven? You’re right, I fucked up. But I don’t know what else there is to do.”

“Some explanation would be much appreciated.” She gestured for him to sit down on the bench while she grabbed a small towel and began soaking it in a sink. “I thought I was doing you a favor.”

He bit out a short, mirthless laugh and then lapsed back into silence. Raven frowned and walked back over to him, beginning to gently dab at the blood on his face. “Seriously, Charles. Do we need to all sleep with one eye open or what?”

“No. No, I don’t think so. _I_ might, but it has nothing to do with you or anyone else.”

“What happened?”

“As I’m sure you can imagine, Erik and I have a number of unresolved issues. After our conversation last night, I can say with some confidence that they will forever remain unresolved. I had hoped… Well, never mind what I hoped. Whatever we might have been, we’re nothing but enemies now.”

He tried to look away, but Raven grasped his chin tightly and turned him to face her. “Don’t say that. We’re all adults here. Whatever personal shit there is, we need to put it aside so that we can all work together to deal with Pace.”

“I’m afraid that might not be possible for us. For me, at least. I thought we had something real.” He shook his head. “But I was wrong.”

“Come on, Charles, you…”

“Let’s not do this, Raven. He told me.”

“Told you what?” She dropped her hands to her sides and took a step back, giving him an odd look. “Charles, I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He had to give her credit – the look of utter confusion on her face was almost enough to make him believe that she didn’t know what he was talking about.

“You slept together.”

“What? Wait, me and… Magneto? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes. He told me last night.”

Realization dawned over Raven’s face and Charles was surprised to see her lips quirk up a bit. He felt his stomach twist painfully. “Oh, that good, was it?” he asked bitterly.

“God, no! I mean, I’m sure he’s… Never mind. Just hold up a minute and think – did he actually say that we slept together?”

“Something about you being naked in his bed. What does it matter how he said it? I got the picture, thanks.”

The near smile hadn’t left Raven’s face as she shook her head. “What an asshole.”

 “Want to fill me in?”

“Oh, yeah, so, yes, I did show up naked in his bed. Don’t look at me like that! He’s an attractive man and I thought we were all going to die. And I never would have done it in the first place had my darling brother seen fit to not keep me entirely in the dark about his personal life.”

“I don’t blame you, Raven. You couldn’t have known. He did.”

“Exactly. Which is probably why he kicked me out.”

“He… what?”

“Yeah. That was the night before Cuba. I imagine you have some idea of where he might have been the rest of the evening?”

Charles deflated.

She sat next to him on the bench and put an arm around his shoulders. “Hey, I get it. That was a low blow. No matter what you guys were fighting about, he shouldn’t have gone there. I’m surprised he did, really.”

“I had made a comment about his mother that was unappreciated.”

“What type of comment?”

Charles rubbed his sore arm and responded with some chagrin, “I may have suggested that he might as well have been the one to put a bullet through her head.”

“Shit. Charles.”

“I know, I wasn’t thinking.”

“Clearly.” Her anger was fading into something Charles chose not to believe was pity. “In that case, I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that the two of you didn’t actually murder each other.”

“As I said, we’re nothing but enemies now.”

Raven stood up again, irritated. “Well, that’s all well and good, but it doesn’t change the fact that we’re running out of time here. Pace will be expecting a decision in two days. You and Erik aside, we’re not all enemies, and I, for one ,would like to find a solution that everyone can find tolerable and that results in as few of us getting hurt as possible.”

“Yes, thank you, Raven. I would, as well.”

“Good.” She put her hands on her hips and turned to face him, yellow eyes glowing.  “So. What are you going to do?”

 

* * *

 

_I’m going to kill him_. It was all Erik could do not to grab the nearest vase and slam it into something or, better yet, someone.

He was aware that he not thinking straight right now. He needed to get out of these blood-spattered clothes and take a shower and have a drink and maybe then he would regain his capacity to think strategically about the situation. Right now, it was all he could do to breathe and focus on walking to his room.

To get there, he needed to pass by the open door of Janos’s room. He moved quickly and thought he was in the clear, but then Emma called his name and he had to turn around.

He entered to find Emma and Azazel sitting next to Janos’s bed. Emma looked up and her eyes widened. “What the hell happened to you? You look like shit.”

Azazel and Janos looked up as well. When Erik made no attempt to answer, Azazel began to say, “I heard that there was going to be sparring between him and Xavier…”

He trailed off and went silent at Erik’s glare, but Emma had heard enough. “Charles Xavier did all that to you? You have to be kidding me.”

“He’s stronger than he looks. And don’t give me any bullshit about missing an opportunity - I damn well wasn’t going to try to kill him in front of a roomful of people.”

“Fine, then. Kill him tonight. You’ve spent the past two days screwing around and we are running out of other time. Step up and make a decision.”

“I have. No one is going to kill the Professor.”

Azazel broke in before Emma could respond. “We may not need to. The man is not mentally stable right now.”

Erik looked over to him in confusion and Emma brightened a little. “True enough,” she said.

“What’s he talking about?” demanded Erik.

“Oh, you didn’t hear?” Emma was close to a full-on smile now. “Your old pal had a complete breakdown yesterday morning. Apparently, Pace was just asking some questions about Cuba and, next thing everyone knew, Xavier was on the floor mumbling nonsense. He thought he was paralyzed again, or something, and was crying and begging some nonexistent person to stay. It was pathetic.”

Erik tried to ignore the sudden tightening in his chest.

Emma tilted her head, watching him closely. “So, for the record, I still think we should kill Xavier, but I’ll grant you that I don’t think we have to be too concerned about his ‘brilliant strategic mind’ outwitting us.”

Azazel looked thoughtful. “I would not dismiss the Professor. It is not so strange, I think, to have bad memories come back if someone speaks of them.”

“So you vote we should kill him?”

Azazel shrugged. “Perhaps.”

“That makes two. And Janos?”

Erik growled before he could answer. “This is not a democracy.”

“Yes, thank you, Magneto,” Emma snapped back. “We are all aware that it’s a fucking cult of personality.”

Erik rose to his full height and slowly moved closer until he was looming over her. “Would you like to challenge my authority, Emma?”

He had to give her credit for standing her ground and looking him straight in the eye as she said, “Of course not. I just want to hear you swear that you are capable of making a fully rational and objective decision about what we do next here.”

“I am fully confident in my ability to plot a course of action that will ensure the dignity of all mutants present.”

“So you swear you can be impartial?”

“Yes.”

“Then I await your command.” She inclined her head and stepped gracefully back.

“And you two?” He turned to Azazel and Janos, who were quick to nod assent. “Good. I wish to be left alone for the rest of the afternoon. In the meantime, you are to stay away from all of the X-Men, especially Xavier. Pace is the enemy. Understood?”

He didn’t wait for their response as he turned and walked out the door. He was glad now that he hadn’t gotten the chance to change. Blood or no, he needed a run.

The only way he had been able to survive the past five years was by erecting walls around all the emotions stirred up by that event, fortifying them with a ever-present fury.  That fury should be easy enough to feel right now, considering what he had just learned Pace had done, but instead he was focused on Charles. He couldn’t stop the images barraging his mind: Charles, embarrassed and alone on the ground, forced to relive the worst moments of his life. He must have been in so much pain last night. Lashing out at the man who had caused it was only natural, but Erik had gone ahead and managed to make things even worse.

He picked up speed. That familiar anger was eluding him now and Erik had the alarming feeling that those walls were on the verge of collapsing.

As soon as he stepped outside he broke into a run. And then he couldn’t stop - he finally let himself think about Charles lying broken on the beach, claiming he had done it. The rage that accusation usually stirred up had vanished, leaving Erik with the simple and terrible truth: it was his fault.

He pushed himself harder, letting the wind to take the tears that ran down his cheeks.  He had spent his whole life living with the unbearable. He knew more than anyone that it was a waste of time to look back or think about what might have been. The only option was to move forward. He could never hope to make things right, but he damn well could stop anything worse from happening to the mutants he’d made it his life’s mission to protect. No matter what Pace had in store, he was determined to keep everyone safe, even and maybe especially Charles, no matter what it took. And, if he was honest with himself, he could admit that what it probably took was forging an alliance, which meant speaking to Charles alone again. Even if Charles he was planning to kill him.

_As he has every right to_ , he couldn’t help but think _._

Erik sighed and turned back towards the main house.

 

* * *

Erik wasn’t sure what to expect, but he when he entered to study late that night, he found Charles sitting at the chessboard. Erik closed the door behind him and locked it.

Charles simply nodded his head and moved his queen’s pawn. Erik took the chair across from him and tried to anticipate how Charles was going to play this. Did he have a gun? A knife? Erik doubted that Charles would try to physically overpower him after this morning, but a knife seemed too brutal even for him. He couldn’t imagine that Charles had been trained to use a revolver small enough to hide on his person but, at this distance, even the worst marksman would be hard-pressed to miss. A gun, then.  

Charles spun a rook around in his fingers, then put it down with a sense of finality. Without meeting Erik’s eyes, he murmured, “I’m sorry.”

Erik forced himself to remain expressionless.

“I am, truly. I went too far, both last night and this morning. I was put under a significant and unexpected amount of stress and I’m afraid I let it get the best of me.”

“You could have told me.”

“Yes.” Charles nodded and finally looked up at him, blue eyes wide and sincere. “There’s a lot I could have told you, Erik. When that bullet went into my back…”

Erik shifted uncomfortably. “We don’t need to talk about this.”

“Yes, I believe we do. At least, I need you to hear me out. How and if you respond is up to you.”

Erik nodded silently.

“When that bullet went into my back, I thought my life was over. And then you left and you took Raven and I knew it was. The fact that I didn’t die didn’t matter. Her return helped, but it wasn’t enough. I found myself shouldering a weight I’d never anticipated needing to shoulder alone. I needed time to mourn for everything that had been lost that day, but that time never came – the school needed me more. My sole purpose in life was to keep it running, helping young mutants live their lives in peace and contentedness no matter what I was going through.

“So I resigned myself to living a life without feeling. It seemed like the best option for me. I even took pride in this image of myself as this Zen-like figure who gracefully took whatever came his way and didn’t let it affect him.

“But it was a lie. I knew that before, on some level, but yesterday made facing those feelings unavoidable. Anger came first. I’m sure you’re familiar with that, my friend. I pushed through that today and cycled through other feelings - shame, grief, fear, all the responses expected from someone coping with trauma, no matter how belatedly. Now that I am acknowledging them, I must also accept that making a full recovery is the work of a lifetime. And the first step is letting go.”

“You’re right.” Erik’s voice sounded rough even to his own ears. “I’ve been thinking along similar lines. I came to you tonight to suggest that we put the past behind us and move on along our separate paths. We may never be allies, but we don’t have to be enemies.”

“If that’s what you wish.”

Erik nodded stiffly and moved to get up, then stopped. This might be the only chance he had to be honest. “Charles, I need to say something else. You said that day that what happened to you was my fault. I refused to accept that for a long time. Too long, really. But I accept it now. And I am so deeply sorry.”

Charles looked into his eyes as if were searching for something, then nodded. “I forgive you.”

“You don’t have to say that.”

“No, I don’t. But it’s true.”

“You are a far better person than I could ever hope to be. I hope you know that.”

“And I hope you know that I still believe that you are capable of being a far better person than you think you are.” He leaned forward and took one of Erik’s hands in his, a smile slowly creeping across his face. “Remember how Hank used to have his lab in the east wing? He was completely obsessed with it, but you hated the constant racket and flashing lights, not to mention that he was using it to try to ‘cure’ himself. And then one night everyone had gone to bed early and we took the opportunity to... do some experiments of our own, and you ended up warping nearly every piece of equipment in the lab. You were completely horrified.” He chuckled.

“Charles…”

“Anyway, I was rather impressed with myself and wanted to just head back to my room and pick things up, but you refused to leave until everything in the lab, even the things you hated, was back to how it was supposed to be. I thought you were just worried about being caught, but when I said something to that effect, you said no, you just knew how much all of this stuff meant to him. I went to bed eventually, but you stayed up all night fixing it. If I hadn’t already known how I felt about you, that would have done it.” He smiled shyly. “You remember that night, Erik?”

Erik frowned and looked away. “I’d rather not discuss it.”

The smile fell away and all traces of warmth left Charles’s voice. “Which part of it?”

“Come on, Charles. We just said we were going to move forward, there’s no point in revisiting something we both know was doomed. Better to let it lie.”

“So, is this how we’re going to play it, then?” Charles grip on his hand was becoming almost painful. “Just act like it never happened?”

“I don’t know what you…”

“Please don’t. Forget it. I’m sorry I brought it up, just, please don’t deny it.”

Erik looked down at where Charles’s hand still covered his. “Okay,” he said softly. “It happened. It’s over. And here we are.”

“Right. Just another part of your past that you’ll file away,” Charles said bitterly.

Erik jerked his hand away and rose from his chair. “What do you want from me? What do you want me to say right now? Anything. Tell me. I’ll say it if it will make this...” He gestured between them. “Make whatever this is stop.”

Charles just looked at him and Erik felt his frustration mounting.

“What do you want, Charles?  Do you want me to say I’m sorry? I am. Do you want me to say I was happy here? I was. Do you want me to say that I loved you? I did. Hell, I probably still do. But none of that changes a goddamn thing.”

 They stood facing each other for a moment. The only sound Erik could hear was the pounding of his own heart. And then Charles was striding towards him and pulling him down into a deep kiss. Erik allowed himself to get lost in it for a moment, his entire world reduced to the feel of their tongues sliding against each other and the taste that was so distinctly Charles, until they were forced to separate for a moment to breathe.

“We probably shouldn’t do this,” Erik whispered against his mouth.

“No, we shouldn’t.” But then Charles was kissing his jaw and Erik felt his thoughts stutter.

He pulled away reluctantly and breathed, “It’s only going to make everything more difficult, you know.”

“I know.” Charles pulled off his shirt and any hope of resistance Erik had faded. He tore off his shirt and pulled Charles to him, groaning at the contact of bare flesh. He kissed a gentle line down Charles’s throat, soothing the same bruises he had left behind only hours before. Charles was making appreciative noises and he ran his hands along the defined muscles of Erik’s back before reaching eagerly for his belt buckle. Erik responded in kind and they made quick work of what remained of each other’s clothes.

Charles went to reach for him, but before he could, Erik sank to his knees in front of him. He pressed a kiss to Charles’s thigh and lightly trailed his fingers over his hips, reveling in the soft moans that turned into gasps when Erik took him in his mouth.

Erik reveled in the truly obscene noises Charles was making. It made him yearn to take himself in hand and relieve some of the rapidly building pressure, but he kept his hands locked firmly on Charles’s hips. He had almost taken all of this away from Charles forever; what right did he have to take pleasure from it? No matter what Charles had said, it was unthinkable that he would want Erik, of all people…

“Hey,” whispered Charles. “Stay with me. Look at me, Erik.”

Erik looked up at Charles as he continued to work him. Charles met his eyes and whatever he saw there had him pulling Erik him up to face him. He moved to kiss him but Erik stepped back, feeling his eyes sting. “I don’t deserve you, Charles. After everything…”

“I don’t care who deserves what right now. I want you, Erik. I’ve wanted you since the night I pulled you out of the water. I thought I’d lost you forever and now you’re here and maybe this is wrong but I don’t think I can stand another instant of not touching you. Please. Come here.”

That did him in. Erik was on him in a second, shoving Charles against the wall and slotting their mouths together. After a few moments of clinging to each other desperately, Charles spit and wrapped his hand around both of them. Erik groaned and thrust against him hopelessly as Charles stroked them to completion. It wasn’t quite the right angle and was over too fast, but Erik couldn’t remember anything ever feeling so perfect. 

He pressed his forehead against Charles’s and they stayed there, coming down from the high, until their breathing returned to normal. Charles kissed him again, gently this time, then slid out from where Erik’s arms were pinning him to the wall to grab one of his extra sweaters to clean up.

Erik remained supporting himself against the wall for another minute, still a bit stunned. Charles was dressed by the time he turned around, but the way his clothes were rumpled and his hair hung down in his eyes made Erik think he just might be able to go again if Charles would have him.

Charles glanced at the clock. “We should probably go up to bed,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Erik started pulling his clothes back on, determinedly not looking at Charles. If that was all Charles wanted from him, who was he to begrudge him? He had no right to feel hurt.

“There’s an empty bedroom at the end of the hall, you know.”

“Sorry?” Erik arched an eyebrow, trying to appear stoic.

“What, you tired?” Charles picked up Erik’s shirt and threw it to him. “I’ll be in there with my clothes off if you think you can stay up.” He gave him a cheeky wink before swanning out of the room.

It took Erik’s brain a full thirty seconds to process what he had just said before he began grinning like an idiot and went after him.

 

* * *

 

_Interview with Emma Frost  
Conducted by Carlton Pace_

_Power: Telepathy, assuming an impenetrable diamond form when threatened_

_Affiliation: Brotherhood second-in-command_

_Relationship status: Involved on and off with M. Lehnsherr_

_Interview Summary: Ms. Frost made it very clear that she was rather unhappy about the current state of affairs for mutants here, but encouragingly did not appear to see anything personal in it and was perfectly happy to discuss her point of view on the matter. She is a staunch supporter of the Brotherhood viewpoint that mutants are a superior breed that will ultimately win out over non-powered humans and she believes we are right to be gravely concerned about them. She was quite while explaining this, so I decided to risk attempting to gather more information from her about our major players.  
Ms Frost confirmed that Professor Xavier and M. Lehnsherr had a relationship of a sexual nature (in her words, “Of course they were fucking.”) This seems to have occurred during the time of M. Lehnsherr’s residence at the Institute and has, to Ms. Frost’s knowledge, not resumed since the beach incident (“God, they better not be. I’d kill him. I mean…”) At this point, Ms. Frost trailed off, announced she had to leave the room, and exited without waiting for permission. I allowed it. _

_Comments: I have the distinct impression that Ms. Frost has the potential to be a valuable asset if given the proper incentive. Must follow up._

_As for the new information she provided - far be it from me to care about gossip and interpersonal issues, but it seems that we may be able to use this particular piece to our advantage._


	7. Day 6 – There’s really nothing more to say

Charles woke with the sun, rolling over and snuggling into the warm body next to his. He blinked his eyes open and froze. This had to be another cruel dream. He gently ran his fingers along the soft hairs on Erik’s chest and felt the other man shift before sighing in satisfaction and snaking an arm around Charles’s waist to pull him closer. That felt real enough.

Charles had to fight off a wave of giddiness – he hadn’t dared to even hope that he would ever wake up like this again. But here he was. He was certain that, once he allowed himself to awaken fully, the vague concerns that prickled at the edges of his consciousness would hit him full force and he and Erik would have to deal with the consequences of all that had happened yesterday. But that would come later. This might be the last time he would ever be this close to Erik and he’d be damned if he was going to let it go to waste.

Charles let himself drift off into a light doze. The next thing he knew, Erik was whispering, “Charles, wake up. Charles.”

Charles took perhaps a bit longer than necessary to open his eyes so he could appreciate the near reverence with which Erik said his name. When he finally did, he was greeted with a gentle, affectionate smile that lit up Erik’s blue-green eyes. God, he was gorgeous. They should just stay here in this room, talking and touching, until this was all over and let other people deal with the upcoming disasters for once. Or maybe they could run away together to some island and spend the rest of their lives just lying on the beach… Well, maybe not the beach, but a warm, fire-lit cabin on some snowy mountain range could definitely work. Just as long as they stayed together, he was sure everything would be all right.

“Charles?” He snapped out of his reverie to find Erik raising an eyebrow at him fondly. “You weren’t listening to a word I just said, were you?”

“Ah, sorry, love. Give me that again?”

“Has anyone ever told you that you are ridiculously British first thing in the morning?”

“Not that I can recall. I daresay you find it rather endearing. At least, I have some recollection of passing some rather pleasant mornings… conversing. Besides, counter to _your_ typical morning persona, which is really quite…”

“You also talk a lot.”

“I’m certain you could find a way to distract me.”

Erik indulged in a series of slow, sensuous kisses before gently pushed him away and sitting up. “I should get back to my room and shower before anyone notices that I’m not there.”

“Do you have to?”

“I do.” Erik smiled and gave Charles another quick kiss before beginning to disentangle himself from the blankets.

“Come on, Erik. Don’t go.” Charles was teasing, the battle clearly already lost, so he was rather surprised when Erik instantly froze. “Um, Erik?”

Erik just sat there, placidly staring straight ahead. “Erik?” Charles was trying not to panic, but he was getting no response. Was Pace going ahead with a second stage to his plan? He started shaking him. “Erik, please talk to me.”

Erik whipped his head towards him. “Charles, what the hell did you just do? I can’t move from this bed, but I know I can move generally and I thought you had no powers and that, even if you did, that you’d never use them this way, but it seems like you did and now you said to talk and I can’t stop talking…”

“Okay, okay. Erik, calm down, stop talking.”

Erik immediately went silent. _What the…?_

_Oh. Fuck._ Charles raised his fingers to his temple and braced for the shock of the first mind he was going to touch in six days. It was wonderful, like diving into a pool of cold water on a hot day. And it was Erik, of all people. Charles hadn’t realized until this moment quite how much he had missed the familiar sharp precision of his mind, the orderly lines on the surface and the deep wells of emotion underneath that were so uniquely Erik.

_Focus, Charles_. He only had to concentrate for a few seconds before he found the veil of his influence draped inelegantly over Erik’s own thoughts. Sloppy work. Well, it wasn’t like he’d meant to do this. He reached out and gently pulled it back until he was certain there was nothing left of his accidental transgression before pulling out of Erik’s head entirely.

Charles opened his eyes to see Erik blink slowly before the realization of what had just happened hit him. Erik’s eyes widened in panic and he raised a hand unthinkingly. The silver lamp on the corner desk tore itself free from its electric cord and shot over, hovering in the air between them. Both men stared.

Charles took a deep breath. “It would appear our powers are beginning to flicker back earlier than expected.”

“Yes, it seems so.”

“I really am, sorry, Erik. I had no idea, you know I wouldn’t ever force you to stay with me.” He looked away and smiled sadly. “Much as I might want to.”

Before Erik could answer, the still hovering lamp swayed abruptly and he had to grab for it to stop it from hitting Charles in the face. He wasn’t able to get a good grip on it and the lamp went clattering to the floor, the sound of metal on wood reverberating through the room.

The next thing they knew, the door was swinging open and Emma burst in. “What the hell was that? Holy shit.”

Both men froze. They were sitting up in the bed, clearly naked under the sheets, so there really wasn’t anything to say.

Emma was livid. “What the fuck, Erik? Unless this is somehow part of an extremely elaborate plan to kill him, we have a real problem here.”

“Emma…”

“You are betraying everything you’ve ever fought for.” She glanced at Charles. “You are too, by the way, I just care less.”

“Emma, this has nothing to do with…”

“We need to make what may well be the biggest decision of our lives and you’re thinking with your dick. Where does that leave me? Where does that leave all of us who gave up everything to follow you? You’re so fucking selfish.”

Charles had never seen Emma this emotional. He braced himself for her to either attack Erik or start crying, but she simply turned to leave with one last disappointed shake of her head, slamming the door behind her.

Neither man moved or spoke for a good few minutes until Charles broke the silence. “I’m sorry, did she mention a plan to kill me?”

“Oh, don’t act like you weren’t plotting to do me in. It’s the obvious solution.” Erik shrugged. “Plus, our powers seem to be flickering back earlier than expected. So there’s a limited window here.”

“Damn it, Erik. I don’t want anyone to kill anyone. We have to accept Pace’s offer tomorrow and, once we do and he lets us be, we can figure out what to do next.”

“That would be a fine plan if I trusted Pace to keep his word about anything. But I don’t and you shouldn’t either.”

Erik pushed off the covers and rose to pace the room. He had always claimed that he thought better on his feet, but Charles had the sneaking suspicion that it was at least partially a diversionary tactic. He glanced away and Erik continued.

“Moreover, we can’t pass up an opportunity to send a clear message that the way we have been treated this week is completely unacceptable and that there will be consequences for anyone who would dare attempt anything similar.”

“We are in a school with children, Erik. If you engage in a fight, the risk of one of them getting hurt will be unacceptably high.”

“And you don’t think you’re risking them getting hurt by signing them up to do God knows what for the government? That’s what’s unacceptable.”

Erik raised his voice at that and Charles glanced towards the door that he now realized was unlocked before motioning for him to keep it down.

Erik switched to a whisper. “Besides, Charles, it’s the principle of the thing.”

Charles ran a hand through his hair. “So, before we get into this again, might we put some clothes on? I must tell you that it is rather disconcerting to be having this conversation naked.”

Erik raised an eyebrow and looked like he was trying not to laugh.

Charles couldn’t chuckling. “This is completely and utterly ridiculous, isn’t it?”

“You know I could never bring myself to kill you.” Erik leaned over the bed to rub an affectionate hand down Charles’s cheek before rooting around for his clothes. Charles watched him, certain he was still grinning like an idiot.

“So,” continued Erik as he threw Charles’s boxers to him. “Where does that leave us?”

Charles sobered. “Not so far off from where we were last night, I suppose. Bottom line is that I do not want this ordeal to end in violence and, as such, will strongly recommend that we register. You will never accept that because you believe there is some hidden agenda…”

“Don’t make it sound like some crazy conspiracy theory. Pace is clearly plotting something involving us and I seriously doubt it’s anything friendly.”

“Even so.”

They studied each other for a long moment. Eventually, Charles sighed and busied himself in pulling on the rest of his clothing. “Oh, my friend. It seems that we will never reach a mutually acceptable solution, will we?”

“I wish I could say otherwise. Look at us, Charles. So much has changed, but we still don’t want the same thing. And we both have too many people depending on us to do anything other than accept it and go our separate ways.”

“Then so be it. Let’s not fight anymore. Do what you feel you must and I shall do the same. All that I ask is that you do everything in your power to keep any fighting that may occur away from my school.”

“And all I ask is that you make no attempt to stop any of your students who choose to follow me.”

“Likewise.” Charles cocked his head thoughtfully. “I’m surprised you didn’t ask that I not get into anyone’s head.”

“I trust you, Charles.”

“Well, then.” He knew he needed a better response, something to convey the warmth that ran through him when he heard those words and the way he felt about Erik.

But the right words didn’t come and the moment passed.

Erik leaned over to pull on his shoes. “So. There’s really nothing more to say, is there?”

“I don’t believe there is.” Charles could feel tears welling up and beginning to blur his vision.

Erik nodded once, then turned to open the door. He paused for a moment before swiftly turning around and pulling Charles into a fierce kiss.

They broke apart, both breathing heavily, and then Erik left Charles alone in the bedroom.

 

* * *

 

“Charles! I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

He contemplated retreating from the kitchen when he realized Moira was there waiting for him, but it was probably too late at this point. “Oh! Good morning, Moira.” The vague sense of guilt that had come over him when he heard her voice intensified when he saw that she had already set a place for him at the table. He sat down, grateful that he had taken ten minutes to shower and change before coming downstairs.

Moira served scrambled eggs onto two plates and brought them over to the table. She leaned down to kiss him and Charles hoped that he appeared less awkward than he felt as he moved his head at the last second to turn it into a cheek kiss. The odd look Moira gave him suggested otherwise, but she seemed to shrug it off as she sat down opposite him and poured herself some coffee. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Of course, why do you ask?”

“Well, the last time I saw you, you were getting slammed into a wall and strangled. The time before that, you were stomping off angrily without having fully recovered from your PTSD flashback. So…”

“Fair. I’m sorry to have worried you, dear. Everything’s fine. I got the anger out of my system and spent much of last night in the study thinking over our options for tomorrow.”

“Did you reach any conclusions?”

“No definitive ones, I’m afraid. We frankly don’t have many options. I have serious concerns about what exactly Director Pace has planned for us all, but registering still seems a safer bet than allowing ourselves to be declared wanted criminals by the government. One would hope that if we prove ourselves trustworthy, we will be treated with at least some degree of respect.”

“Yes, one would hope,” Moira repeated wryly.

“You don’t believe we will?”

“Hopefully this is me being overly cynical, but I have my doubts. That said, you’re right that the other option is probably worse.”

“So it’s decided, I suppose.”

They ate quietly for a bit. Charles was still not entirely confident in his ability to read people without his telepathy, but he was fairly certain that Moira was struggling with something. “Anything else you wanted to talk about, love?”

Moira exhaled loudly and steeled herself before meeting his eyes. “There is one contingency we should be prepared for.”

“And that is?”

“Somehow I doubt that the Brotherhood is going to choose to sign themselves over quietly. I would think Pace would be smart enough to get them all out of here before their powers return, but if he doesn’t, that will leave us in a very compromising situation.”

Charles put his fork down. His appetite seemed to have deserted him. “You’re not wrong about that.”

“I know I’m not. Which is why I’ve been telling you for the past week that the safest bet would be to just kill Magneto.”

“Not going to happen.” Charles prepared himself for a fight.

He was surprised when, instead, Moira simply shook her head and smiled slightly. 

“I know.”

“Um, you do?”

“Charles. I’ve known you for what now, six years? And I’ve… cared deeply for you for all of them. I, of all people, understand that taking any life, especially that of a man you once considered a friend, would be incredibly difficult for you. So, though I disagree with your choice in this instance, I can respect it.”

“Thank you for understanding, Moira.” She really was a wonderful friend. Hopefully she would remain so once she learned that was all she would ever be. Charles felt that tide of guilt rise in him again, but he batted it down. Now was not the time for that conversation.

“All of that said,” Moira continued. “It seems risky to go into tomorrow without a plan to counter any ill-conceived attacks by the Brotherhood, especially Magneto. Not sure if you heard, but Hank was explaining yesterday that, since the pulses blocking your powers are electromagnetic, Magneto could theoretically have the ability to adapt to and counter them. A similar thing could happen with telepathy, since you’re particularly attuned to brain waves, though he thought that was less likely. Obviously if you get your powers back early, that would be wonderful. But if just Magneto does, we’re screwed.”

Charles sighed, hating himself a little for what he was about to say, but knowing Moira was right. “As a last resort, I do have a plastic gun that Hank fashioned last year hidden in my desk drawer. Take it and hide it on your person. But, Moira, I beg that you only use it if absolutely necessary. Is that acceptable?”

She nodded solemnly and reached over to take his hand in hers. “Thank you for trusting me.”

Charles froze as she leaned towards him and was wondering how to politely extricate himself when Raven entered. She seemed to get a handle on the situation immediately. “Hey Charles, I’ve been looking for you. Can we have a quick talk in the other room?”

Charles shot her a grateful smile before turning back to Moira. “Do you mind?”

“No, of course not. Go ahead. I’ll clean up.”

He nodded his thanks and followed Raven to his study, trying not to make his relief too obvious. Raven gestured for him to enter, then closed the door behind them. “You really need to deal with that, you know.”

“I know. But now’s not the time.”

“Oh, really? Now’s not the time to deal with personal issues? I must be misremembering yesterday.”

“I already apologized for that. And I’ll have you know that Erik and I reconciled last night.”

“How did that go?” Raven glanced over at the half-finished drinks and chess game by the fireplace. Charles hurried over to clean them up. “Well, I take it?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Really? You’re sure you don’t remember getting laid last night?”

He tried to look indignant, but he was sure his heated face was already giving him away. Raven looked at him meaningfully and mimed pulling up her collar. Charles scrambled to do so and tried to ignore the flood of emotions connected to the memory of Erik’s teeth and tongue on his throat.

Raven laughed. “Calm down, Charles. I don’t care. I mean, I care in that I’m your sister and want you to be happy, but I don’t think you, like, betrayed the cause or anything.”

“That’s good, I suppose.”

“Please just tell me this means that we’re all working together to find a solution for tomorrow.”

“Well, we did reach some conclusions, so…”

“And that’s a no. Great. I get that you were otherwise occupied much of the night, but you couldn’t have at least taken a five minute break to discuss strategy?”

“We did, actually. I just don’t think you’ll like what we came up with.”

Her expression turned dark. “I’m sure I won’t. But, go ahead, fill me in anyway.”

“Raven, nothing that happened between Erik and I changes the fact that we have fundamental disagreements about the place of mutants in their world and how they should secure it. As much as we may wish otherwise, working together is not an option when we are as far apart on that as we are. So he will lead the Brotherhood into hiding and plan some kind of resistance and we will all register and discuss terms of cooperation afterwards.”

Charles expected Raven to be disappointed, but the sudden fury in her eyes took him by surprise.

“So the grown-ups have had their talk and now the rest of us will all just fall in line? God, you can be so arrogant. I think sometimes you forget that the whole world isn’t you and Erik and a bunch of children who need to be coddled and led. You can’t just assume that all of your students will stay with you.”

“I like to think I’ve taught them better than to seek war,” Charles replied mildly, working hard to tamp down his frustration. Did she think he was making these decisions lightly? Of course it wasn’t ideal, but it was for all of their own good. This may shock you, Charles, but there are people who don’t want to go to war but also have a problem with signing up for God knows what with the same government that has been persecuting them. Do you ever think that sometimes you’re so determined to not let your feelings for Erik sway you that you end up pushing yourself too far in the opposite direction?”

“I don’t need to be psychoanalyzed, especially not by you. And you know very well that Erik is the one who took an extreme position and left.”

“Oh, he started it, you’re saying? Maybe we’re not the only children in all this.”

“That’s enough, Raven,” Charles snapped. “Please allow me some time to myself to think things over.”

“Yes, sir.” Raven gave him a glare and a sarcastic salute before exiting.

Charles poured out a drink and reassured himself that he was doing the right thing.

 

* * *

Erik was wrapping up his talk to the Brotherhood members and feeling more than a little uneasy that Emma had still not shown up. And was it just him or was Azazel glaring at him? Hard to tell with that man.

“If they allow us to leave as planned, we will exit together. Once we are a safe distance away, we’ll make camp and wait until all of our powers have fully returned. At that point, Emma will identify the agents’ locations and we shall teach them a lesson.”

Azazel definitely looked skeptical now. “And if they don’t let us leave?”

“Then they leave us no choice but to fight where we are. We have been training for exactly that scenario. Yes, they have guns. But if we let them take us, we will be tortured, experimented on, or, worst of all, have our powers taken away permanently. And they will likely kill us eventually regardless. Better to go down fighting.”

No one looked like they disagreed with him. After all, each of them had joined the Brotherhood fully aware that it might call for them to risk their lives for the cause. But the crowd was definitely antsy. He knew that quite a few of them had formed friendships with Charles’s students and would likely prefer to be enjoying their last night together than to listen to him speechify. Fair enough. He could relate.

“Alright, go on. We’ll meet back in this room at 10 am sharp to prepare for Pace’s arrival at noon. Thank you all.”

The group bustled out of the room. Erik glanced down to where he was flexing his fingers in an attempt to lift a pen he’d dropped earlier, but it was to no avail. When he looked back up, only Janos remained. Erik got a sinking feeling in his stomach when the other man walked over to close the door before turning to face him.

Janos spoke softly, but the words were clear enough. “I know.”

Erik struggled to keep his face impassive. “I see.” He waited for Janos to elaborate, but the man lived up to his reputation of using as few words as possible. “I imagine Azazel and Emma already know? Of course they do, it would be too easy for me to just kill you now to keep you silent, otherwise.”

Erik waited for Janos to reply, but the man simply nodded.

Erik continued, “I’ll be honest, I’m not quite sure what to say here. I could try to deny or explain away what happened, but we both know that would be bullshit. I could apologize, and it would be sincere as far as that I did not intend to injure you as severely as I did, but it wouldn’t matter because you wouldn’t believe me anyway. Killing you is off the table, as I mentioned. So, what options are we left with?

“It seems to me that you have very few. Tomorrow morning, you can register or you can refuse. After all you’ve spent the past fifteen years fighting for, I seriously doubt that you will choose the latter. So we will all leave and wait to regain our powers. At that point, what can you do? You could go out on your own, but I think we both know that you are not suited for a solitary existence. You could try to take me on for the leadership of the Brotherhood, but what do you think your chances are against me? Or even the chances of you with Azazel and Emma? Do you really want to find out? I don’t think you do. Besides, after the battle for leadership, you’d actually have to lead and, trust me, it is far less rewarding than you’d imagine. All these lives in your hands that can snuffed out in an instant with one false move.

“So, that leaves you with one final option. Follow me. Take what happened for what it was – a one-time slip in control. Come with me and stay under my protection; join me in bringing about a future where all mutants are secure and free from the shackles of humanity.” He extended a hand.

Janos looked at it warily before shaking it, then proceeded to say more words than Erik had heard the man utter in his life. “You speak well. I don’t. You have a passion and a charisma that the rest of us cannot match. People will always follow you, even if you are leading them into nothing but misery. It is thus your responsibility to turn off your feelings, as you cannot afford to be emotional. It doesn’t matter if the emotion is rage or love or anything in between. I believe in our cause and I believe you are the only person who can lead us to achieve it. As such, I have to believe in your ability to put all else aside and give us what we need. So I will follow you, Magneto. Don’t make me regret it.”

Janos left the room before Erik could respond. He began to breathe a sigh of relief but the air stuck in his throat when the door opened again and Emma walked in. She greeted him with a brief nod.

“Nice of you to join us,” Erik said drily.

“Nice of you to remember who you are.”

“I never forgot who I was, Emma.”

“Oh, really? Than what was this morning about? Don’t bother trying to tell me it was some tactical play, I saw the way you looked at him.”

“I’m not going to lie to you, Emma.”

“Let me save you some time and breath and tell you that there is nothing you can say to convince me that you can be a fit leader for the Brotherhood. I’m sure you were able to talk Janos into it, but I’m not so easily swayed.”

“That’s why you’re my right hand. I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

“Good.”

“I admire Charles not despite his beliefs, but because of them. I may think he’s wrong on many counts, dangerously so on some, but I have the utmost respect for the way that he stands his ground and fights for what he thinks is right. He and I argue often and sometimes we broaden each other’s perspectives, but if I were able to convince him to come over to my side because of any sort of personal connection, he wouldn’t be the man I fell in love with.”

_Fell in love with._ Well, shit, he hadn’t meant to say that. He couldn’t quite gauge Emma’s reaction, so he stumbled ahead.

“My point is that I am in the same situation. We acknowledged that we will need to go our separate ways today. And, though we may need to fight in the future, we are not enemies. When Pace asks us for our decision tomorrow, the Brotherhood members will refuse to register and walk out. If he tries to stop us or come after us, we will destroy him. Do you find that acceptable?”

“Sure.” She shrugged and began to walk away.

“Where are you going?”

“None of your business, sugar. We all have our secrets.”

 

* * *

 

_Interview with Moira MacTaggert  
Conducted by Carlton Pace_

_Power: n/a_

_Affiliation: Former CIA, now associate of the Xavier Institute_

_Relationship status: ~~Is~~ Was in a romantic relationship with Prof. Xavier.  _

_Interview Summary: Agent MacTaggert was accompanied by Ms. Frost when she arrived at the interview room. She appeared emotional and somewhat indisposed, so Ms. Frost explained the situation. Apparently, she found M. Lehnsherr and Professor Xavier in a state that strongly implied that they have resumed their sexual relationship. As Agent MacTaggert had been under the impression that she was in a monogamous relationship with the Professor, she was rather upset._

_The end result of these proceedings was that Agent MacTaggert agreed to join Ms. Frost in working with me to ensure the best possible outcome for us tomorrow morning. I must admit to being surprised at the lengths to which both ladies are willing to go, but I suppose that’s why they say hell hath no fury…_

_Comments: Details to follow under separate cover._


	8. Day 7 - Do what you feel you must

“Charles, get up!”

Charles blinked awake and found himself still in his study. All his contemplation hadn’t gotten him much further from where he was yesterday, so he must have drifted off. But he didn’t think he’d allowed himself to sleep for that long. It was barely even light out, so why was someone yelling at the door?

Raven barged in even as he moved to open it. “We have a problem.”

“What is it?”

“Moira knows.”

“Knows…?”

“Hank is trying to stop her, but she’s insisting on going to speak to Erik.”

“Fuck.”

Fully awake now, Charles followed Raven out of the room and down the stairs. Hank was blocking the hall that led to Erik’s room and Moira was trying in vain to get past him. “Hank, I swear, if you don’t let me through I will have to leave and come back with my weapon.”

Charles rushed towards them. “Moira!”

Moira didn’t even spare him a glance. “Fuck off. Emma told me everything. There are more important things to worry about at the moment.”

“Moira, I am so incredibly sorry. I behaved…”

“Really?” She whirled to face him. “You want to do this now?”

“Please don’t,” implored Hank.

Charles excused Hank and Raven with a gesture before turning his full attention to Moira. “Now, as I was saying…”

He was interrupted by her slapping him across the face. “That was for leading me on.”

“I probably deserved that, I’m sorry…”

She slapped him again. “That was for lying to me.”

“I truly am…”

She gave him one final slap. “And that was for not telling me that you’ve been in so much pain for years!” Her voice shifted from anger to sadness. “And then letting me try to convince you kill the man you love without giving me the chance to understand or be there for you.”

“I said I’m sor… Wait, what?”

Moira grabbed his shoulders. “I love you, you fucking idiot _._ I don’t want to be yet another part of your life that brings you pain and guilt.”

Charles blinked, a bit stunned. “You are a far better person than I am, Moira.”

“I know.Now, listen to me. I need to get to Magneto. I have information that is crucial for him to hear before he and the Brotherhood make any moves. I was going to fill you in after, but since you’re here already, why don’t you come along?”

Charles began to move, but Moira stopped him once more. “All of that said, Charles, I have the gun. I will use it if I need to.”

There wasn’t much he could reasonably say to that, so Charles just nodded briskly and allowed her to lead the way.

They walked quickly to Erik’s room and knocked. “Who is it?”

Moira looked meaningfully at Charles until he spoke up. “It’s me, Erik.”

The door seemed to open of its own accord and a floor lamp that had been floating horizontally to bar the entrance on the inside drifted away to allow them access. Erik stood facing them in full body armor and cape.

Charles stared. “It would appear you have regained your powers.”

“Yes. And you?”

Charles couldn’t help the spike of hurt he felt when he saw Erik glance over at the helmet on his night table. “Nothing yet. We need to speak with you.”

Erik looked at Moira as if seeing her for the first time and did an impressive job of covering up the alarm that flashed in his eyes.

“What is _she_ doing here?”

“You can address me directly, you know. ‘She’ knows all about you and Charles’s relationship. ‘She’ is really not so thrilled with either of you right now. But, more importantly, ‘she’ is here to tell you that you need to watch your back and change your plans because Emma is working with Pace.”

Erik’s voice was dangerously low as he asked, “Are you accusing my second-in-command of betraying me?”

“I am.”

The petrifying glare Erik gave Moira was enough for Charles to edge closer and lightly clasp his fingers around Erik’s wrist.  

Moira clocked the gesture, but didn’t react to either that or Erik’s implied threat. “Emma brought me to Pace last night so he could recruit me to help him carry out his real plan. I’m here to tell you what it is so that you don’t end up playing right into his hands.”

Charles’s touch had calmed Erik somewhat, but he still looked at Moira with suspicion. “Why would Pace think he could trust you?”

“Because when you go in for an interview right after somebody tells you that the guy you thought was your boyfriend just got finished fucking the man you were plotting to kill, emotional distress isn’t exactly hard to feign.”

Charles dropped Erik’s wrist. “Moira, as I said, I am dreadfully sorry…”

Moira and Erik glared simultaneously. “Not now, Charles!” They looked back at each other and seemed to conclude that they just might be able to accept the idea of working together.

“Fine, then,” said Erik. “Tell us the plan.”

“Here’s what’s going to happen. Pace doesn’t know that Hank is close to figuring out how to counteract the effects of his machine, so he thinks no one will have their powers back until the end of the day at the earliest. When he arrives at noon, he’s going to have everyone come out on the front lawn and ask for all of your decisions. It will all seem peaceful at first, but when Charles is called up to announce his choice, Pace will make sure to say something provocative. If that isn’t enough to make someone do something stupid, Emma will make sure there is enough unrest that the guards have a legitimate reason to use their weapons.

“I’m supposed to make sure that Charles gets shot in the melee. Emma will use his death to get Erik to rally the Brotherhood and Charles’s students to fight, which will give Pace an excuse to have the guards shoot to kill everyone. Emma will personally ensure that Erik is dead and then the remaining mutants will be subdued taken back to Pace’s labs for experimentation.”

Charles gaped at her. It was so awful he almost couldn’t process it. “Good God. That’s… That is…”

“Evil,” Erik finished with a calm that was somehow more terrifying than rage would have been. “And for what price, may I ask, did Emma decide to betray her own kind?”

“I believe she was promised freedom and anonymity for life, along with a substantial sum of money.”

“So that was all it took?” Erik shook his head and walked over to stare out the window, expression unreadable. “She is a fool is she thinks the government has any intention of keeping that promise.”

“And you, Moira?” Charles couldn’t help himself from asking. “What did they offer you?”

“A promotion.”

“A… They truly believed that you would be willing to murder me and send the children to be tortured for a promotion?

“It’s not just mutants who underestimate humans.” She had raised her voice to make sure Erik heard.

Erik turned back to them, his eyes hard. “We should kill them. All of them. Show the world what will become of humans who try to harm us.”

“Erik…” Charles began warningly.

“Charles, we’ve had this fight before. And look where we are now. Again, we are faced with a group of government-sanctioned humans who we know for a fact are planning to kill not only us, but also the people we have sworn to protect. You think that calls for a polite conversation?”

“Of course not. But massacring them, if we even could considering that most of us don’t have our powers back, will just lead to more violence. We will all have blood on our hands and it gives the governments of the world even more of an excuse to find ways to track and destroy us. It would be war.”

“Exactly. That’s the only choice they’ve left us.”

“There has to be a better way.” Charles sank into one of the armchairs and put his head in his hands. “I just need to figure out what it is.”

Erik sighed audibly. “It’s a waste of time to be trying to dream up overly optimistic solutions when we could be preparing our people for the fight ahead.”

“There won’t need to be a fight ahead if…”

“Guys!” Moira’s exasperated voice made Charles look over at her. He’d nearly forgotten she was in the room. “It is most definitely a waste of time for you to go back and forth having the same argument you’ve had for the last five years. Once we’ve gotten through this situation, you can both feel free to go your separate ways. Or go back to fighting and fucking and chess, whatever floats your boat. But right now, we all want the same thing. I truly believe that you love your people, your kind, and each other enough to get the fuck over yourselves for half a day and figure out a way to get us out of this.”

Charles couldn’t recall having seen Erik look abashed before. He was sure his humiliated expression wasn’t any better. “You are quite right.” He met Erik’s eyes as the other man sat down across from him. “We need to think unemotionally about this.”

Erik’s lips quirked. “Never one of my strong suits, I’m afraid.”

“At least you’re admitting it,” Charles replied. “It’s not one of mine, either, I suppose. I know you have a much lower opinion of humans than I do, but I think even you would admit that most people would not abide watching a group of young people get butchered by their government. Is that fair?”

“It is. But, even if there was a great tide of public sentiment against Pace’s methods, no one would know about them until it was too late.”

“Unless we had a way to broadcast what was going on as it was happening.”

Moira’s eyes lit up. “You mean, like if we had a giant satellite dish and a former government operative who knew how to hack into broadcast signals?”

“Precisely,” Charles replied. He was relieved to see that Erik was listening attentively. “Hank has cameras and monitors in his lab. He’s there now trying to figure out how to counter the EM pulses that are blocking our powers. We just need a way to ensure Pace doesn’t just have his people shut the cameras down. It would look bad for him, but as Erik mentioned, it will be too late for any negative public sentiment to help us.”

“I should be able to take care of that,” put in Erik. “I can float them higher that anyone could reach and block them from anything the agents might use to take them out.”

“Excellent. I will explain to the cameras that we are not criminals and that it is a violation of our civil rights to be forced to sign ourselves up for some vague paramilitary force. I’ll ask that we be allowed to leave in peace. And then we all walk out together, cameras following us. Pace won’t shoot children on national television.”

“And if he attempts to,” Erik said darkly. “I will be there to stop him.” Erik gave Charles a defiant look, as if waiting for him to object.

“We are in complete agreement on that, my friend. Allowing any harm to come to our people is unacceptable.”

Erik tried unsuccessfully to cover his pleased surprise. “Good. I imagine your agreement will not extend to my plans once we are all secure, so at that point, we’ll part ways.”

“Of course.”

The studied each other in silence until Moira coughed loudly and made her way to the door. “Alright then. I’ll speak to Hank and get the equipment ready. You both go and explain the new plan to your teams. Stress to them that it is imperative for everyone to stay calm and not give Pace any excuse to fire, no matter what he or Emma may say or do. Got it?” Both men nodded. “Okay. Let’s move.”

Charles rose from his chair and Erik followed suit, gaze never leaving him. “Charles,” he said. “I’m glad we’ll be able to work together one last time.”

“I hope it’s not truly the last, but likewise.” He glanced to the dresser. “Don’t forget your helmet.”

Erik feigned nonchalance. “I was going to leave it behind. If you regain your powers, it would be useful to be able to communicate.” He gave Charles a small smile. “The damn thing impedes my vision, anyway.”

Charles was nearly overwhelmed with the urge to kiss him, but, in deference to Moira, he instead offered Erik a firm handshake. If it lasted a few moments longer than necessary, Moira made no comment.

 

* * *

 

Erik had to force himself not to roll his eyes when Pace stepped outside in a powder blue suit and waved as if he were the Queen of England. The man positioned himself on the front steps so that he was looking down at all the mutants before him and the armed agents surrounding them. And people said _Erik_ had delusions of grandeur...

Emma emerged and walked over to stand with the Brotherhood members, ignoring the icy looks she received from most of them. She looked over to meet Erik’s eyes and shot him a cold smile before turning back to face Pace.

Erik braced himself for the return of the outrage he had felt when he first learned of her betrayal. He remained appalled by the fact that she had turned on her fellow mutants while a human risked her life to stand by them. It was disgusting. Erik had contemplated feeling guilty about it; perhaps there was something different he could have said to make her change her mind. He should have at least noticed that something was off with her. But he had been distracted…

No matter. Emma had chosen a side and she would suffer the consequences for it. There was no reason for him to dwell on it.

Instead, Erik focused his powers on the cameras stowed just inside an open second-story window, then extended them to the guns resting on the hips of all of Pace’s men. It was indescribably wonderful to be able to feel the magnetic fields pulsing through him again and know that they would respond instantly to his commands. The joy and peace the sensation brought him was nearly enough to temper his anger at Pace. At the very least, it brought him nearer to that point between rage and serenity that Charles had told him about all those years ago.

Pace began to speak. “Good afternoon! I trust you all had a pleasant week thinking things over. Couldn’t have asked for a nicer location – I offer my sincere thanks to Professor Xavier for the use of his lovely home.”

Charles forced a tight smile and attempted to block Pace’s view of Raven, who was flipping Pace off. Erik smirked. He knew he liked her.

Pace scanned the crowd carefully and Erik held his breath, but the director didn’t seem to notice that Hank was missing. He continued, “I myself had some truly enlightening conversations with many of you, during which I learned some fascinating things.  For example, were you aware that over half the people here were kicked out of their homes by their parents?  And that’s not even including those of you who managed to kill or maim them.”

He looked up expectantly. No one moved.

“If I’m to be completely honest, some of what I learned made me wonder if it wouldn’t be more of a mercy to both mutants and their families for them to just be put down as soon as the active gene is discovered.”

Emma screamed a theatrical “How dare you!” and moved towards him, but no one else followed.

Pace opened his mouth again but, before he could say another word, Erik pulled the cameras through the window, flicked them on, and aimed them straight at the Director.

Charles stepped forward. “Those are now broadcasting live throughout the country, Director Pace. So, if I were you, I’d think very carefully about what I was going to say next.”

Pace cleared his throat and tried to hide his glare. “And so, the time comes for a choice to be made. Will you stand with your government or will you declare yourself an enemy of the state?”

At that moment, a red beam of energy shot straight up into the air and Erik heard Alex whoop. At first everyone just stared. Then a collective gasp of excitement rose from the crowd as they felt their powers returning to them.

“Hank did it!” Raven yelled as she shifted from blue to blonde to blue again. The agents nearest them began to panic and reach for their guns, looking to Pace for orders.

Pace glanced up at the cameras again and grit his teeth as he ordered, “Do not use lethal force – your orders are to contain, not destroy the mutant threat.”

The agents swarmed forward in an attempt to break up the crowd, but the newly re-empowered mutants were ready for them. Pace struggled to contain his horror as the mutants began slowly but surely pushing his agents back.

Erik quickly assessed the situation to see where he could be of the most help. Alex and Sean seemed to have the West lawn under control as Janos and Azazel worked to knock out the line of men guarding the East. Erik felt a swell of pride when he saw the students with non-combat mutations using the techniques he had taught them to subdue their opponents.

Moira was sparring with a burly agent and Erik took a step toward her to help out when something that looked like her weapon was knocked from her back pocket. Moira waved him off and proceeded to knock the larger man out before rushing over to help Magma and Spike fight off a large group that was surrounding them.

Charles was guarding the front door of the mansion. Erik was sure that couldn’t have the full use of his power yet, but whatever he did have was enough to make any agent that approached him decide that they’d really prefer to lay down in the grass and go to sleep.

Erik made his way to the side of the house, where he spotted Pace and Emma whispering together. Erik ripped off a piece of the iron fencing and hurled it at Pace. The man ducked behind Emma, who shifted quickly to diamond and blocked it. Erik was feeling around for something better to get at them with when he heard Charles yell his name.

Erik whirled around to see Pace pull out a revolver and fire at Charles’s head. The cameras crashed to the ground as Erik threw all his focus into stopping the bullet. He barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief when he did before Pace fired multiple rounds in rapid succession at a statue above them, sending the already cracking stone tumbling down towards them. Erik lifted a solid piece of the fence over them as quickly as he could, but it wasn’t fast enough to shield Charles entirely and a section of the stone hit him on the head. It was a glancing blow, but it was enough to knock Charles to the ground, dazed.

Erik took only enough time to ensure he was still breathing before rising to his full height and staring at Pace with the full force of his anger. For the first time, he saw the Director look afraid. Pace shouted at Emma to kill Erik.

And then Pace went completely still.

Erik glanced down at Charles, but he was still unconscious at his feet. He was still trying to process what was happening when Emma spoke. “Go ahead, Erik. He’s all yours.”

He looked up at her in confusion.

“I may think you’re a hypocritical asshole, but that doesn’t mean I want you dead. Do it.”

Erik raised a hand. “Get out of his head. You’re not going to want to be in there in a few seconds. I have him.”

Emma nodded and Pace came back to himself. Erik was reaching for a gun to use when an agent nearby picked up a plastic gun from the ground and tossed it to Pace. Without hesitation, Pace spun and aimed at Charles’s unconscious form.

Erik realized he might not be able to fire in time. Time seemed to slow as Erik stretched his awareness until he could feel the iron molecules pulsing in Pace’s blood. As Pace pressed his finger to the trigger, Erik took hold of all of that iron and pulled. He barely processed the screams and sprays of blood bursting out of the man. Instead, he focused on the plastic gun until it fell to the floor and landed next to the bloody corpse that used to be Director Carlton Pace.

And then there was silence except for a single horrified gasp. “Erik,” Charles breathed, scrambling to his feet. “What did you do?”

“He was going to kill you, Charles. He would have killed all of us.”

Before Charles could respond, the agents who remained standing snapped out of their shock and raised their guns. Without a second thought, Erik grabbed all of the guns and flipped them to face their owners.

“Erik, stop!” Charles yelled.

“Why? You saw with your own eyes that every one of these men was prepared to kill us all.”

“Because that’s not who we should be. We lose all moral high ground the instant we start acting like them. We’d be leaving hundreds of people without fathers and husbands and sons. And, if that’s not a good enough reason for you, think about this. Up until this moment, everything we’ve done has been in self-defense. If you take this any further, it’s not just you but all of us who will be viewed from now on as enemies of the state.”

The argument made more sense to Erik than he would have liked. Perhaps…

No. Charles might be able to afford to think that way, but he couldn’t. Erik sighed. “I’m afraid we’ve been here before, old friend.”

“Not exactly.”

Erik felt Charles brush along the edge of his mind and cursed reflexively. He hadn’t put on the helmet as an impulsive gesture of trust. Idiotic.

“Come on, Erik. You need to put the guns down.”

“Or you’ll make me?”

He saw the flash of anger in Charles’s eyes and prepared to have his mind taken over, but instead, Charles stopped closer to him. He waited until Erik met his eyes before shaking his head. “Your will is yours and yours alone, Erik. Do what you feel you must. But know that I believe, from the deepest corners of my being, that you are better than this.”

Erik hesitated. These men deserved to die, he was sure of it. But perhaps there was a better choice. Especially if Charles was willing to meet him halfway.

He raised his other hand and Charles closed his eyes, not wanting to watch him commit this violence. Erik brought his hands together and there was a crash and a high-pitched grinding sound and then he was putting his hand on Charles’s shoulder. Charles opened his eyes and saw that the guns had melded with some fence posts to form an enclosure around all of Pace’s agents that remained standing. A smile broke over his face. “Erik, you…”

Erik cut him off. “Charles, you know this isn’t enough. They know too much for us to not consider them a threat.”

Charles’s expression turned serious. “And yet you kept them alive. What are you suggesting?”

“I might feel comfortable letting them go if I could be sure that they would have no memory of us, this location, or the de-powering device. Would that be against your moral code?”

Charles looked thoughtful for a moment, then slowly shook his head. “That’s acceptable. Once it’s done, Azazel can transport them to Dulles and they can make their way home from there, believing they are returning from a training mission, yes?”

“Good. Do it.”

Charles began to touch his fingers to his temple until Moira grabbed his arm.

“Charles, wait. Even after you destroy the device, there will still be schematics and maybe even a prototype for it. We can’t know if they’ll be able to rebuild it before Hank figures out how to block it. You should find out which of these guys has the highest clearance and have him bring me into the Department of Mutant Affairs as a special consultant so I can access the files and remove whatever is necessary.”

“You’re willing to do that for us?”

“I am. And, who knows, maybe there will be a role for me there after all? It can only help for you to have a human supporter on the inside.”

“Of course, but... Moira, please know that you are always welcome here.”

“Thank you, Charles. I appreciate it. But for right now, I think I could use some time on my own. I’ll be in touch, though. I do believe we’ll be able to be good friends one day.”

“I would like that very much.” Charles kissed her on the cheek. Moira smiled at him, gave Erik a nod, and then walked over to join Azazel next to the caged agents. 

As Charles turned to them and focused, Erik was startled by a hand on his arm and a soft voice saying his name.

Before he could dismiss her, Emma said, I’m sorry. You have to see…”

“I don’t have to do anything.”

“Fair enough. But I want you to know anyway that I wasn’t betraying the cause. I was trying to save us. I’d seen two men I deeply admired stray from their mission because they got emotional and selfish. I’m done finding someone to attach myself to and pin my hopes on. I want to start over and do it right.”

“And working with our enemy is ‘doing it right’?”

 “Well, I couldn’t have accomplished much of anything if I were on a government registry, so when I realized you didn’t have the same conviction I did, I decided that it would be for the greater good if I sacrificed this watered-down Brotherhood. Then, I could get away and found a group that would be willing to do whatever it takes to help us. Please understand that.”

Erik did understand, despite himself. He had felt that way for a long time and some part of him thought he still should. “Then why didn’t you kill me when you had the chance?”

Emma shrugged, trying to appear indifferent. “We’re all hypocrites in some way. Besides, even if you have gone soft, the more mutants who don’t buy into Xavier’s peace, love, and understanding crap, the better.”

“Fair enough. You still want to go forth and form your own little terrorist cell?”

“Terrorist is a strong word. But yes. If you let me go with my mind intact.” She glanced over to where Charles was giving instructions to the agents. “Somehow I doubt your boyfriend would approve of my agenda.”

“No, I’m sure he wouldn’t. Alright. Go.”

Emma blinked. “Are you serious?”

“Don’t give me time to change my mind, Emma.”

“Thank you.” She shifted to diamond and began to walk towards the woods, calling back over her shoulder, “See you around, Erik.”

“I’m sure.”

Erik watched her disappear into the tree line with something almost like fondness and shook his head. Charles would definitely not approve. Erik turned to locate the professor and was surprised to see that Moira and the agents were already gone. As Azazel popped back into view and looked towards him expectantly, Erik felt his spirits sink. There was nothing left to do but gather the Brotherhood members who were still with him and leave. Again.

Charles appeared to be thinking along similar lines as he made his way over to Erik. He stopped close by and Erik noticed that he was swaying slightly on his feet.

“Are you ok?”

“Influencing that many minds would be exhausting even if I were at my full capacity. But I’ll be perfectly alright, just need a good night’s sleep tonight.”

“We all could use one.”

They watched the others milling about, giving congratulations, trading stories, and showing off newly regained powers. The mood was buoyant in spite of the light daze everyone seemed to still be working their way out of.

“You know,” Charles said quietly. “You could all stay. Just for one more night, I mean. Let everyone celebrate and rest before we go our separate ways?”

Erik looked over at Charles, who was deliberately not meeting his gaze. He was sorely tempted to stay. But, if he did, he wasn’t entirely sure that he’d be able to leave again. “I’m sorry, Charles, but I think it’s best for all of us if we go now.”

Charles agreed reluctantly. “Shall we remind them of their options?”

“You want to go first?”

“Oh, no, wouldn’t want to take that away from you. I know how you love your big speeches.”

“I’ll keep it short, I promise.”

“Oh, good, so we’ll only be here until tomorrow morning, then.”

Erik laughed despite himself. “Come now, old friend. You could give me a run for my money with your lecturing any day.”

“Go on, then,” Charles said with a shake of his head. He didn’t bother to hide his affectionate smile and Erik couldn’t help but bask in it until Charles sobered and shifted his expression into what Erik thought of as his serious professor look.

Erik steeled himself and levitated a few feet to get everyone’s attention. He remained there, staring impassively, until all talking had ceased.

“Brothers and sisters, we have emerged victorious today. For tonight, we can celebrate and revel in the return of the parts of ourselves that were so cruelly stolen. But this will not be the end of it. Others will come forward with new threats to our survival. We must be prepared not only to face these threats as they emerge, but moreover to stop them before they have the chance to come even slightly close to fruition. To do this, we must be willing to take the initiative and strike first. Come with me today, join my Brotherhood, and we can work together to ensure a brighter future for all of mutant-kind.”

Erik was gratified to see Janos, Azazel, and a few of his other more loyal members making their way towards him before Charles had even begun to speak.

“Everyone, please know that there is another way. There is no need to resort to violence in situations where we are not directly under attack. Our battles should be fought not on the field but in the media. If we live in peace and are open and honest with the world, they will come to learn that we are both trustworthy and valuable citizens. I sincerely hope that is how you want to live your lives. Regardless, the time has come for a choice to be made.”

“No.” It was almost a whisper and it took Charles a moment to pick the voice out of the crowd. Raven locked eyes with him and, with a light push from Hank, stepped forward and repeated, louder this time, “No, we don’t.”

“Pardon?”

“Charles. Erik. You can’t do this. First Pace tries to force us to make a choice between two bad options and now here you are doing the same thing.”

“Raven…”

“No, just shut up a minute and look at us. Look at all of us, Brotherhood and X-Men, standing here together, united. Ready to move forward together and make the world a better place for mutants. And you want to divide us and make us choose between extremes?

“We want to be seen as a legitimate political force, at the very least. Some of us would go so far as to say that we should be self-governing. And how’s that going to work? Could anyone expect the US government to function if policy could only be made by having Nixon and Humphrey or, God forbid, Wallace, agree on every aspect of it? That’s ridiculous. And so is the idea that we can only work together if Professor X and Magneto are in total agreement. I don’t know about all of you, but I’d rather see progress before hell freezes over.”

A loud cheer erupted from the crowd. A few mutants seemed skeptical, but by and large they seemed to be responding well to her message.

“Let’s do away with old systems that don’t work for us anymore. We don’t need one or two or even ten leaders. Going forward, all of our decisions should be made democratically.”

One of the still uncertain Brotherhood members called out, “And what if we do agree that we need to fight?”

“Than so be it.”

The man laughed harshly. “A military force can’t be run by democracy.”

“If it is ever the case that we, as a group, decide that it is necessary to use force, we have two excellent generals standing by.” She gave a quick salute in Charles and Erik’s direction. “Who’s with me?”

The crowd roared its approval.

“Awesome. We can get started tomorrow. First things first, let’s get this place cleaned up so we can all get a good night’s rest.”

Hank opened the door and began ushering the group in. Raven strolled over to Erik and Charles with a smile on her face. “Sorry, guys. Did I steal your thunder?”

“A bit.” She smiled wider and Charles’s expression softened. “I’m proud of you, Raven.”

“As am I.”

She looked at Erik in surprise. “Really?”

“You should know by now that I am more than capable of having deep respect for people I strongly disagree with.”

“Fair point.” Her face turned serious. “We’ll still need you both, you know.”

“We’ll still be here.”

With one last grateful smile, she joined the remaining crowd in moving inside until only Erik and Charles remained on the lawn, still a bit dumbstruck.

Charles ran a hand through his hair. “My friend, I believe we’ve been… is demoted the right word?”

“Deposed?”

“Oh, that sounds so overdramatic. We’re still part of the group, just not in charge. More… elder statesmen.”

“Elder statesmen? Are we old already, Charles?”

“I’d say no, but my first thought when I considered having more time for myself available was that it would be an excellent opportunity to do more research and play chess.”

Erik laughed. “To be honest, I’m afraid I might go crazy with any significant amount of free time. But I’m sure I can figure something out.”

“So, we’re all good, then?”

“I guess.” Erik was hesitant to say what he wanted to say next, but it would kill him not to know. “Charles, what about us?”

“Well, we didn’t end up going our separate ways. So, I guess that leaves us with - how did Moira put it? Fighting, fucking, and chess?”

Erik grinned and pulled Charles into a long, slow kiss. “That could work for me.” 


End file.
